To Thaw a Frozen Heart
by Nefelibata Clipse
Summary: "Elsa... you don't have to hide it around me." Fun and invisible Winter spirit Jack Frost comes across conflicted and isolated Elsa of Arendelle, and all chaos ensues. Haunting pasts, ominous enemies, looming danger, and a dirty secret stands in the way of every chance of these two distrustful souls ever finding unexpected warmth within the bitter cold they have grown so used to.
1. (Prologue) Nemesism

To Thaw a Frozen Heart

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Chapter 1. (Prologue) Nemesism

* * *

**Jack**

Sometimes he lost control.

The wind raged around him as he clutched his head in his hands, his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenched.

_You are Jack Frost._

That was all the Moon had ever told him.

Fifty years had passed since he had risen from the ice and gasped his first breath and looked into the face of the one who had spoken only four words to him and nothing else;

_You are Jack Frost._

Fifty years was a long time to be alone. It was enough time to lose your mind.

It would be ten more years before he would accept his loneliness.

It would be twenty more years before he'd discover the overwhelming joy of making a child smile with his powers, and he'd use them for making snowmen and starting snowball fights and freezing over lakes for skating.

It would be thirty more years before he'd never lose control again.

For now, after only fifty years of life, he knew nothing but one thing.

_You are Jack Frost._

And it drove him crazy.

He sat on the highest branch of the tallest tree in his forest with his knees pressed against his chest and his shoulders hunched forward and his face buried into his palms. His hands curled into fists around the icy white locks of his hair, and he pulled at them, his eyes squeezing shut tighter as he tried to keep from screaming. The brown cloak he wore billowed and flapped loudly around him as the wind picked up even more, carrying blindingly white snow with it.

Despite the oncoming blizzard he was causing around him, his blood felt boiling hot.

"_Jack."_

He shook his head as the Wind whispered to him, not looking up, his teeth still grit tight.

"_Jack, stop it."_

"No," he choked softly through closed teeth, his voice swallowed by the howling storm, but he knew Wind could hear him. His staff dangled beside him, it's arch around the branch he sat on, but he didn't need it; His rage fueled the storm. "I can't."

"_You can. Please. Jack, you'll make me hurt someone."_

He shook his head again, but this time he looked up, releasing his hair from his hands and opening his eyes, which were brimmed with frozen tears. "I can't!"

"_Control your temper. Before the people of Burgess freeze to death."_

"I can't!" he bellowed, clutching his face once more as the blizzard strengthened, shaking the tree he sat in and snapping branches off of it. Soon the deafening sounds of breaking tree trunks filled the air as trees fell to the ground.

"_This is the third time this year, Jack. The other two weren't _this _bad. You have to stop before someone is killed."_

"Killed?" He started to tremble, his anger making him weak yet strong at the same time, and he raised his head and looked up at the sky, his blue eyes wide and pained. "I- I can't."

"_Try, Jack. Just try."_

He stared up at the sky, trying to take deep breaths, but it was no use; The anger and fear hit him in waves. Loneliness was so... suffocating. He couldn't breathe.

Through the snow-filled wind and flying branches, the Moon was barely visible, full and staring down at him.

He felt as though It was judging him.

"Why did you put me here?" he whispered, so quietly even he couldn't hear himself, but he knew the Moon could.

A second went by without answer.

Two seconds.

Three.

The wind went faster still, destroying everything but Jack himself.

Four seconds.

He bowed his head again, closing his eyes and allowing the fury to take control once more.

Five seconds.

The very tree he sat in began to sway dangerously, and he pushed the Wind on, urging It to break the tree and knock him down.

Six.

"_Jack, you need to stop."_

Seven.

The tree was bending farther; Surely it would snap any minute.

Eight.

"_Jack."_

Nine.

Wind was resisting him now. He pushed harder against it, stubbornness joining the anger.

Ten.

"_Jack, stop!"_

"Help!"

He gasped, and looked up, and the noisy racket around him quieted slightly.

That was not the wind that had said that; That was a person.

Was his mind playing tricks on him?

"Help m-m-me!"

No. That was definitely someone crying for help through the deafening whistle of the storm around him.

He snatched up his staff and leaped off the tree branch that he had nearly broken, falling gracefully to the ground and squinting through the icy white wind, his wrath momentarily forgotten. "Hello?"

He walked blindly over the swirling snow beneath him, before his bare feet came in contact with the frigid hardness of ice, and he knew exactly where he was; The lake.

"P-p-please..."

The voice was closer.

He was running now, and, without his knowledge, the wind had stopped completely. The snow began to settle, and Jack could see now.

And what he saw horrified him.

A girl, she couldn't have been older than ten, lay curled up on the ice, long dark hair covering her face, but he could still see her chattering teeth.

"D-d-d-d-daddy..." she called softly, her teeth snapping together rapidly in the cold, "H-h-help..."

Jack stared down at her for a moment, his mouth and eyes wide, and his staff dropped to the ground with a clatter as he stared down at his hands.

_I did this,_ he thought, staring at the pale flesh of his palms in horror, _This is all my fault._

He looked back at the girl, who was clad in thick Winter-wear that was not thick enough for the storm he had caused.

She was going to die here before long.

Without thinking, he reached down as though to pick her up, and his eyes closed as he flinched at the nauseating feeling caused by his hand going right through her shoulder.

He watched as her lips started to turn blue, and he knelt down beside her. He reached out a second time, only to helplessly brush her cheek with the back of his hand, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of his hand going right through her skin. What else was there to do?

He gasped when she stirred, as though she had felt his touch, and her hair shifted slightly out of her closed eyes, which fluttered.

She stared directly at him for the briefest second.

"You..." she whispered.

Then a voice rang out from only a few feet away, causing them both to jump.

"Here she is! King Jeremy, I've found her! I've found the princess!"

A man came sprinting into view. He wore thick armor and a relieved expression, and within a few moments, a dozen men were suddenly surrounding Jack and the girl, all wearing the same armor.

Another man shoved his way through the crowd, one who wore a regal golden crown over his snow-covered brown hair.

"Luciana!" he cried, falling to his knees beside the girl and taking her into his arms.

But she didn't look at him; Her eyes were locked with Jack's.

"Is she frostbitten, your highness?" the first man asked, the one who had found her, "There's a spot on her cheek..."

The king looked down at his daughter's face, brushing the light blue spot with his fingertips. "'It is not frostbite..." he murmured, "I cannot identify it. There is a town nearby, we must take her to their doctor."

As he gave additional orders to the men around him, the girl, Luciana, never looked away from Jack. Her breath plumed out from between her blue lips, and she moved them as though attempting to speak to him. "Y- y-you-"

"Hang in there, darling," the king pleaded, lifting her as he got to his feet, "We'll get you to warmth."

The little princess tore her eyes from Jack's and looked up at her father, four of her shivering fingers closing together as she pointed weakly at Jack. "D-d-d-don't you s-s-see...?"

But the king was already hastily running in the direction of Burgess, disappearing into the trees. Within seconds, his men followed.

Jack blinked, wide-eyed, staring down at the numerous footprints embedded in the deep snow.

She could _see_ him!

The shock eventually wore off, and his mind clouded with questions.

But why?

It couldn't have been because of his touch; He had come in physical contact with many people and never once had they been able to see him afterward. They always just walked right through him without looking back.

Never once had he left a faint blue bruise-like mark in their flesh.

All of the anger that had rushed through his blood ten minutes before was now gone, replaced by confusion, curiosity, and wonder.

* * *

The following morning, he searched the entire town for the princess, but couldn't find her anywhere. Disappointed but still thoughtfully amazed, he walked idly through the streets, catching an occasional bit of conversation from the townspeople.

"How about that storm last night, eh?"  
"Forget the storm, did you hear that the king of Arendelle visited us in the night?"  
"He was supposedly seeing family in the next town over."  
"Why did he come here?"  
"The princess got lost in our forest."  
"Thank goodness she was found!"  
"Where are they now?"  
"They've sailed back to their kingdom."

So she was gone. Overseas. He had a mind to go after her, but decided against it. He was probably a danger to her anyways.

After all, he'd already almost killed her once.

"_You must learn to control this,"_ the Wind advised him one night many days later as he lounged on a tree branch, watching guiltily as a building was being repaired, one that had been destroyed by his fit. _"One of these days you'll do something you regret in your anger. You could have killed that girl, possibly the one child on the planet that can see you."  
_

Though Jack did not reply, these words frightened him. He was glad the girl was taken from him before he could do her any real harm. Though the thought of forgetting her was nearly painful, as she was the only person who had ever acknowledged his existence, he realized it would be best for her if he never attempted to find her, or even think of her again.

_"Perhaps,"_ the Wind said thoughtfully, _"once you've got your powers in control... You could go search for her."_

* * *

Years passed, and Jack discovered new things about himself.

His powers could be used for more than just random bursts of anger; They could be used to make children smile.

He expanded his horizons, finally leaving Burgess and exploring the world, favoring Antarctica, where he often went when his anger rose and he could be free to lose control.

Within fifteen years he had managed to bring snow and fun to every country on Earth... except Arendelle. He went out of his way to avoid the quaint kingdom just outside of Norway, for he knew visiting meant remembering, and remembering meant searching, and searching meant finding, and finding meant hurting.

And he was _not _going to hurt that child again.

But Wind's words circled through his head as the years passed.

_Once you've got your powers in control, you could go search for her._

* * *

Little did he know that the child was no longer a child.

She was a woman now, one who had married at twenty, become queen at twenty-one, and had her own child at twenty-two. The blue mark on her cheek had faded by then, but the powers within it had not. They seemed to have no affect on her, but the same could not be said for her daughter.

Despite Jack's efforts to keep the queen safe from his dangerous temper, the damage had been done.

The firstborn princess of Arendelle was born with frightening powers that the king and queen tried desperately to keep hidden from the world.

* * *

*******Nemesism** (English) - n. _**Frustration**, **aggression**, and **hatred** directed against oneself; "**Self-Loathing**"_


	2. Solivagant

Chapter 2. Solivagant

* * *

**Elsa**

"I will _not _go to sleep, I will _not,_ I will _not, _I will_ not!"_

Elsa rolled her eyes as her younger sister swooped around the room, loudly exclaiming the same chant repeatedly with an exasperated tone of voice, the back of her hand pressed dramatically to her forehead.

"Anna!" her mother laughed, attempting to scoop up the squirming six-year-old and failing, "You have to sleep, it's nearly midnight!"

"I can't sleep, Mommy!" Anna squealed, bouncing on her heels and pointing at the large bay windows of the bedroom she and Elsa shared, "The _sky _is awake, so _I'm _awake_. _So I _have _to play!"

Her mother stared at her incredulously. "The sky is what?"

"Awake, Mother," Elsa chimed in, abandoning all efforts to appear Grown-Up as she took her sister's hand, giggling, and sprinted over to the window.

Curious, their mother followed.

The three girls looked up into the sky, where breathtaking auroras of softly glowing hues of green and purple shimmered against the inky black sky above the endlessly tall mountain peaks in the distance.

"See, Momma!" Anna said excitedly, "It's awake!"

"Oh, I see," the queen replied, an amused smile on her face, "But perhaps if I told you a _story,_ you just _might_ consider-"

"Oooh, story!"

Elsa winced as her sister's squeal pierced her ears, but grinned all the same as she scurried to her own bed, eagerly burrowing under the covers and watching her mother expectantly, unable to keep from bouncing up and down giddily in anticipation for another one of her mother's stories.

"Alright," her mother said, moving a small stool to the center of the room and sitting down comfortably, "Which one would you like to hear?"

"I wanna hear the one about the girl and her lost shoe!" exclaimed Anna, clasping her hands together and placing them beneath her chin, a wondering look glazing over her eyes as she sighed dreamily, "And then her prince used it to find her."

Elsa shook her head. "We heard that one last night. I want to hear the one about-"

"What about the one about the girl who was only an inch high?" Anna suggested without missing a beat, seeming to be honestly unaware that her older sister was trying to speak, "And then the fairy prince sweeps her off her feet and whisks her away into happily ever after!"

"That one's okay," Elsa tried, looking back at her mother, "but could we please hear the one with the-"

"_Or,"_ Anna continued, now counting each story on her fingers, "there's the one about the two people who couldn't love each other because-"

"_Anna," _Elsa protested indignantly, grinning.

Anna looked over at her older sister with wide innocent blue eyes. "Oops, sorry," she giggled, "Go on."

Elsa nodded in a theatrically regal way, and turned to her mother once more, clearing her throat. "I would like," she said in her best Grown-Up voice, "to hear the tale of the magic boy from when you were little."

The queen's eyes lit up. "Ah," she said, smiling, "I always love telling that one." She leaned forward, looking at both of her daughters as they watched her expectantly.

"Once upon a time," she said in a dramatic, mysterious whisper, "in the dead of Winter, I was on the brink... of _death."_

Anna gasped, though she'd heard this story a dozen times, while Else merely waited for her mother to continue, her blue eyes glittering.

"It was cold... and it was dark... and I was scared," the queen continued, "We had gone to visit my father's aunt, who was a kind peasant woman in America. As they were catching up, I strayed into the forest, for I loved to explore. But I had gone much too far, and could not find my way back. And then, out of nowhere, a wild storm started up, and suddenly everything was white. I didn't know which way was up or down. So I walked straight forward until the cold became too much, and my legs went numb, and I fell to the ground like a stone."

She chuckled when Anna wrapped her arms around herself, as though imagining such a cold. Elsa, however, merely watched, waiting for more, the look of wonder never leaving her eyes.

"I tried calling for help," their mother went on, "But my voice was weak. I laid there for perhaps ten minutes, shaking like a leaf and calling out, hoping that somebody would hear me.

"And somebody did.

"I thought it was an angel," she said quietly, looking down at her lap, her eyes going out of focus as she got lost in her memories, "I thought I was dead. Everything about him was so _bright._ His skin and hair were as white as the moon. His clothes looked like they were from a completely different time. And his eyes were so... _haunted."_

She looked up and smiled, shaking her head when she saw that Anna was already fast asleep. Stories that lacked romance always failed to hold her youngest daughter's interest.

Elsa, however, was as awake as the sky, staring back at her mother with all the alertness in the world.

"But the most amazing thing," the queen continued in a soft voice, leaning forward even more and looking straight into her eldest daughter's gleaming blue eyes, "was the power that radiated off of him. His bare feet left frosty trails in the frozen ice beneath him. The wind seemed to obey his every whim. Snowflakes followed him wherever he went."

Elsa looked down at her own hands, a small smile marking her mouth.

_Just like me._

"He touched my face," the queen murmured, "and I suddenly felt stronger. Still freezing, but stronger. No explanation. No reason. He, somehow, kept me alive before your grandfather found me a few moments later. He saved my life."

Elsa smiled. "Did that really, _really _happen, Mother?" the nine-year-old girl whispered.

The queen smiled back. "Yes, my dear," she replied, standing up and kissing her daughter's forehead, "It did. Goodnight, Elsa."

The lights were turned off, the door was closed, and Elsa lay in the dark, looking out where the lights continued to shine through the frosted glass of her window.

The sky was wide awake tonight.

After a moment, her eyes began to flutter, and she started to doze off.

"Elsa. Psst, Elsa! Psst!"

Her sister's voice filled her ear, and she pretended to be asleep.

Anna scrambled up onto her older sister's bed, bouncing on it impatiently. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

Elsa sighed. "Anna, go back to sleep," she grumbled, before gasping as her sister responded by putting her full body weight on her, laying down on top of her back with her arms spread.

"I just _c__an't..."_ Anna sighed dramatically, the back of her hand touching her forehead once more, "The _sky's _awake, so _I'm _awake, so we have to _play."_

"Go play by yourself," Elsa replied, though she was smiling as she rolled Anna off of her with a grunt.

She heard her sister land on the floor with a soft _thud _before giving a defeated sigh.

Elsa, however, knew she was far from defeated.

As expected, she felt her sister crawl onto her bed once more, and felt one of her eyelids being lifted gently by Anna's tiny finger.

Elsa stared up at her sister for a moment, a small smile forming slowly on her mouth, waiting for the question that _always_ won her over.

Anna smirked mischievously. "Do you want to build a snowman?"

* * *

**12 years later**

* * *

_Tap tap tap._

"Your highness."

Elsa lifted her head off the ground, from where she had been laying on her side with her cheek pressed to the cold ice-glazed floor. Her eyelids fluttered dazedly, and she yawned.

_Tap tap tap._

"Your _highness."_

She sat up, and realized that she was on the ground in front of her bedroom door. How had she gotten here? Her sleep-clouded mind took a moment before waking up enough to give her the answer.

Anna.

Anna had come to sing to Elsa at dawn.

Her younger sister usually came to her bedroom door once or twice a day to knock uselessly a few times before accepting the fact that Elsa was not going to answer. So she'd then settle down on the floor in the hallway and babble incessantly about what was happening just then in her life.

Things like:

_"A new painting was added to the third tower. You'd love it... Lots of colors."_

Or:

_"Last night the cook tried to make me eat my brussel sprouts. Is it bad that I threatened to fire him?"_

Or, most recently:

_"Coronation day in one week, Elsa! Are you ready?"_

And then sometimes, like this morning, she would sing.

When Elsa had woken up to the gentle lullaby-like sound three hours before she was supposed to, the sun had hardly even risen yet outside her window. But that didn't matter; Glimmering auroras greeted her in the black sky that was beginning to lighten with dawn.

The sky was awake, so Anna was awake.

Her younger sister's sweet, melodic voice had traveled through the thick wooden bedroom door and filled her frigid room with warmth, a room that was coated floor to ceiling in ice, snow, and frost. Elsa had stumbled out of bed, tugging the covers along with her, and crawled on her hands and knees over to the door, desperate to get closer to Anna's voice.

She had pressed her ear against the smooth chilly wood and listened to Anna sing about a great number of things, and it made her heart hurt. So much in fact... that the already-icy ground beneath her knees had started to harden and crack with her emotions.

That was where she had dozed off, lulled to sleep by her sister's soft singing.

Now, two hours later, the sun was up, and Elsa sighed.

_Tap tap tap._

"Your highness, you have many dresses to try on!"

Elsa groaned.

Today she had to be fitted into a suitable dress for her coronation ceremony this weekend.

"Yes, yes, I am awake," she mumbled, getting to her feet and stretching, before reaching down for her gloves, which she had thrown down on the ground at some point the night before.

_The night before. _She could hardly remember any of it. It was very fuzzy.

"Elsa, don't make me come in there!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" She rolled her eyes, and made her way to the door, swinging it open to reveal head maid and family friend, Diana.

"Oh dear," the elderly woman sighed, managing to catch a glimpse through the doorway before Elsa could hastily yank the door shut, "What a whopping temper-tantrum you had last night, yes?"

Elsa ducked her head shamefully. "I..."

"No, no, no, darling!" Diana laughed, taking the princess' gloved hand and hurrying her down the hall, "I made a vow to your mother and father many years ago to keep your secret safe. Not only that, but I will not judge you. No matter _what._"

Elsa gave a rare smile, but kept her head down.

"What _I'm_ worried about," Diana continued, rushing the girl through numerous doorways and hallways, "is how frigid my poor darling must be in that room. Eh!" She lifted the billowy sleeve of the thin white nightgown Elsa wore. "I must put in some requests to the seamstress for thicker nightwear, hmm?"

Elsa shook her head. "No, it's fine," she assured the motherly maid, "I don't mind the cold."

More doorways. More hallways. Stairs. Passageways.

_Wow,_ Elsa thought, _I'd almost forgotten how big this place is._

"I thought that Father had removed most of the staff here..." Elsa murmured, averting her eyes uncomfortably as a passing butler stared openly at the queen-to-be that never left her room.

"Oh, hush," Diana replied, chuckling, "You're bound to run into people at some point in your life, my dear. You have to _meet_ people. Perhaps, even... find this kingdom a suitable king?"

"_Diana!" _Elsa protested, hating the heated blush that crept up her cheeks.

"Well?" the maid replied with a scoff, pulling the princess into a dressing room and gesturing to a stool for her to stand on, "We need a man around here, and lord knows your mother would be nagging about grandchildren if she were still here."

"As your queen," Elsa said in a dramatically regal tone, a slight smirk marking her lips, "I command you to cease your words of betrothal, and I _forbid_ you to ever speak of it again!"

Diana gasped in mock offense. "_Excuse_ me-?"

"The queen has spoken!" Elsa exclaimed, throwing her hands out theatrically.

_If Anna was here right now, she'd be laughing her head off._

The thought made her face fall slightly, and Diana seemed to read her mind.

"You know," the maid murmured, her voice soft as she wrapped a bit of measuring tape around Elsa's waist, "You _could _talk to her."

"And say what exactly?" Elsa sighed, as the tape was wrapped around her head and then either of her wrists, "'Hello Anna, sorry we haven't spoken in over ten years, wanna build a snowman?'"

Her heart skipped a beat as she heard her own words, and she bowed her head.

"I'm just not safe for her," she said quietly, "If any of... if any of _this,"_ she looked down at her palms wearily, which were covered in the thick cloth of her gloves, "touches her heart, she's..."

She trailed off, closing her eyes and pressing her lips together.

The maternal gloved hand of her maid touched her chin, pushing her head up; She reluctantly opened her eyes.

Diana had to wear gloves too when she was around her, so that she could touch her without accidentally being frozen to death. In fact, she had to wear an entire protective suit that covered nearly every inch of her skin.

Because Elsa was dangerous.

"Elsa," Diana said seriously, grey eyes soft but stern, "You were born with powers that nobody understands right now, and probably never will. But your sister... she is something different entirely. If somehow, someway, she manages to find out again, she _will_ understand. Because she loves you. And someday, you _will_ meet another who will understand and love you all the same."

Despite the fact that she didn't believe this statement, Elsa nodded half-heartedly.

Diana's face brightened, and she turned to a basket of fabrics and began to rummage through it, a sewing needle sticking out from behind her ear. "Besides," she continued, cheerful once more, "Just say a few words to her. On your coronation. After the ceremony, just turn to her, and simply say: 'Hey.' That's all. Saying hello is incredibly powerful, you know."

Elsa considered this. After a moment, she bowed her head in a nod. "Alright."

Looking satisfied, Diana held up a sheet of thick fabric that was a lovely shade of teal.

"You will look simply _enchanting _in this color!"

* * *

***Solivagant** (English) - adj. _Wandering **alone**_


	3. Selcouth

Chapter 3. Selcouth

* * *

**Jack**

"Snow!"

Dozens of countries, hundreds of languages, thousands of smiling children... All shouting that same excited word.

"Snow!"

It was what Jack Frost lived for.

In thirty short years, he had come a long way from the conflicted, temperamental, out-of-control Winter spirit he had once been. Now, he actually smiled.

He smiled because _they _smiled.

The way they squealed in delight when they saw the first few bits of snow fall gently to the ground; The way their eyes lit up with each finished snowman and snow angel; The way their shivers went ignored because they were having too much fun to care about the temperature.

It was enough to make his frigid heart melt.

But of course his newfound happiness wasn't constant; When night fell, Jack would start to feel like his past self. The self that lost control.

Every night when the Moon was up and the curfews were reached, the children would abandon their snowball fights and hurry home to bask in the warmth and comfort and love of their families, leaving Jack temporarily forgotten and forever unseen.

It was at night when the loneliness seemed to drown him in it's suffocating coldness.

Sometimes the Wind would talk to him, but It, like the children, had other places to be; There were leaves to knock down and waves to swirl all over the world.

The animals, which could all see him, were mostly afraid of him.

They looked at him like he was a monster.

So every night when he was too exhausted to simply fly to the other side of the Earth, he'd find a secluded forest or isolated tundra to curl up in and wait for the darkness to go away.

Of course, it was never _really _dark; The Moon was always there, beaming silvery light around him like an enormous nightlight. Despite his anger towards It and It's lack of answers, It always managed to bring him a hint of comfort.

On nights like these, his mind often strayed to darker times, the times when his rage would take over and cause a storm. When this happened, he'd think of the child from all those years ago, the dark-haired princess that had seen them; He often found himself wondering, if he were to go see her now, would she remember him?

And that thought struck a very exciting idea.

* * *

"I'm ready to go see her."

He sailed over the sharp, snowy peaks of the enormous mountains below, unable to keep the eager grin from spreading across his face as he twirled on his side a few times to release some of the enthusiasm that churned in his stomach.

"_Are you certain you're ready?"_

"Of course!" Jack replied, a little offended at the Wind's lack of faith in him, "I have it all in control now. It's been thirty years since my last storm."

"_But Jack, let's not forget what happened three years ago."_

He came to a sudden halt in midair, a mere mile from where the towering mountains ended and the edge of the kingdom of Arendelle began.

The Wind's words cut through him like a knife.

* * *

Three Years Earlier

.

**He was on an island. **

**It was a tiny, uncharted slab of land in the middle of some ocean on some side of the planet. His exact whereabouts were unknown. He couldn't even remember how he had gotten there.**

**His anger had blinded him.**

_"**Jack, you need to breathe."**_

"**I can't," he gasped, from where he lay curled up in the sand, the palm trees around him shaking violently in the severe wind that whistled and screamed over the water. **

**His hands covered his face, and his blood felt like it was burning. Terrifyingly dark clouds with severe intentions covered the entire sky above him, blackening everything and spilling with unnaturally large chunks of hail that pummeled the sand and water around him. Under his influence, the waves rose to impossible heights before crashing back into the water, emitting deafening roars as they did so. **

**It was chaotic.**

**The storm inside of him raged like it never had before.**

_"**You have to control it."**_

"**I can't."**

_"**You'll kill somebody!"**_

"**Nobody's even here!" he shouted through clenched teeth, gesturing to the empty and secluded island surrounded by nothing but raging sea.**

_"**You're wrong, Jack!"**_

**The air filled with the sound of sickening cracks as multiple palm trees snapped like toothpicks, dropping to the ground and shaking the entire island.**

"_**Control it!"**_

"**I can't!"**

_"**You have to!"**_

"**You're making it worse!"**

_"**Jack!"**_

"**Stop it!"**

**There was a brief moment of silence.**

**Then, a voice, from far away: **

"**Help!"**

**.**

* * *

"That was... that was before," Jack replied, trying to keep his voice from shaking, "It was one slip-up. I'm better now, I have it in control. Besides," He started forward once more, soaring towards the towering castle in the distance. "I have to see her now. She's not going to live forever, you know."

"_Jack... About that..."_

"She might be the only living person in the world that can see me!"

"_I understand Jack, but there's something you should know-"_

"Will you quit trying to change my mind?"

"_But Jack-"_

"No!" He was irritated now. Why couldn't the Wind understand how important this was to him? "Nothing you say will keep me from taking this chance. If I feel myself starting to lose it, I'll run away and never come back, okay? Now go away!"

And the Wind reluctantly kept silent the rest of the way to Arendelle.

* * *

He flew over the enormous closed gates and bridge, before landing lightly on top of the lowered drawbridge of the enormous castle before him, which was bordered by mountain, village, and sea.

As he peered through the towering castle doorway into the wide hallway within, he realized he was incredibly nervous.

What if she forgot about him?

What if these past thirty years had changed her beyond recognition?

What if this was all for nothing?

He swallowed, before gathering the nerve to enter the castle.

He had barely made it past the front hall when he heard a desperate voice echo off the walls.

Curious, he made his way to the doorway it had come from, peeking inside to see a giant ballroom with towering windows and a grand chandelier. A small group of servants was currently decorating the entire room with fancy paintings, clothed tables, and dignified curtains.

"Oh, so many preparations!" a young maid was crying, hurrying down the hallway and nearly running right through Jack, "How will we manage?"

"We won't!" another exclaimed, a frenzied look on her face as she vigorously swept the already-spotless floor, "A mere week 'til coronation, and we're a wreck! Oh... the princesses will be so ashamed..."

"No we won't!"

Jack and the maids jumped at the voice that came from a doorway nearby, and they all turned to see a young woman giggling beneath it.

"Princess Anna!" the second maid squeaked, dropping her broom in her haste to curtsy, "Ar-Aren't you supposed to be in a fitting room picking a dress?"

Princess?!

"Princess Luciana has a daughter," Jack said under his breath, shocked.

The girl laughed again, a high, musical sound, before waving her hand dismissively. "I've already picked out a dress. It's flowy and green and absolutely perfect!" She threw her strawberry-blonde hair over her shoulders and looked around the ballroom. "Need a hand?"

The servants stared at her in shock. "Your highness, we couldn't possibly let you-"

"Hey, who do you think I am?" Princess Anna interrupted, grinning as she snatched a feather-duster from an alarmed butler's hands, "I'm not my sister, I actually _want _to spend time with you guys."

Sister?!

Jack gasped. "Princess Luciana has _two_ daughters."

He hurried to leave the ballroom, making his way to one of the other doorways leading to multiple hallways, when the princess, Anna, stepped in front of him.

"Oooh, what's that weird stick thingie you're holding?" she asked curiously, "Are you one of the gardeners?"

Jack's jaw dropped.

Princess Anna's eyes widened. "Whoa, you look _really_ pale. That's not natural. I think you're working too hard... Are you okay?"

"Are..." Jack said quietly, stunned, "Are you talking to_ me_?"

She stared at him in alarm. "Yes," she said slowly, in the concerned voice of one who is talking to a mental patient, "Do you need something? Some air? Some water?"

"Princess?" one of the nearby maids called, eying her with confusion, "Are you speaking to me?"

"No," Princess Anna replied, blue eyes turning to the maid, "I'm talking to-"

She looked back, and Jack was gone.

He sprinted down the hall, breathing fast.

She could see him!

His thoughts made him momentarily blind as he ran, so much that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, and as he turned a corner he bumped into somebody walking from the opposite way.

He didn't go right through them.

His staff was knocked to the ground as he fell, skidding across the hallway floor away from him, and he sat up, wincing as he rubbed his head. His eyes went from narrow to wide, however, when he saw the nightgowned-woman he had bumped into.

She had fallen onto her side, so that her loose platinum curls cascaded over her face, and when she turned her head and brushed them out of the way, wincing as well, he saw her eyes.

They looked at each other for the briefest second.

"Oh, dear!" a nearby elderly woman exclaimed, one who wore an odd sort of Winter suit. She took the girl's arm and helped her to her feet. "Elsa, you must watch your step!"

Jack stood up as well, brushing the dust off of his tan trousers, before looking back up at the girl called Elsa, who averted her gaze almost immediately. "I'm sorry," she mumbled to Jack, before quickly hurrying away, as though afraid that he would hurt her.

Or afraid that _she_ would hurt _him_.

Jack simply stood there, stunned, rubbing the small bruise on his jaw where it had collided with Elsa's forehead.

Because of the millions of thoughts that whizzed through his head, it took him a moment to realize that his chin, and every other spot of him that had come in contact with Elsa during the collision, had been glazed over with smooth, swirling ice.

* * *

The sun was starting to set, and Jack fell, exhausted and confused, against the pointed roof of one of the high towers.

"I don't understand," he muttered, "I've looked everywhere. Where could she be?"

"_Jack," _the Wind murmured hesitantly, _"There is something I've been wanting to tell you, something I should have told you three years ago."_

**The waves were crashing.**

"Three years ago?" Jack repeated, "Why three years ago?"

**The trees were bending.**

"_I knew it would destroy you if I told you," _the Wind sighed, _"But I suppose I can't keep it from you any longer."_

**The sand was swirling.**

"Keep what from me?" He couldn't hide the hint of panic in his voice that was caused by the Wind's sorrowful tone. "What happened?"

**The hail was plummeting.**

"_Queen Luciana is dead, Jack."_

**The storm was raging.**

"_You killed her."_

* * *

Three Years Earlier (Con't)

.

"**Help!"**

**His head snapped up, and he looked up in the direction of the call.**

**A large ship was barely visible in the distance, hardly managing to ride the vicious waves.**

**It was sinking.**

**He shot into the sky, soaring through the violent wind with the speed of a bullet, hovering just above the ship. The deck was covered with shouting, scrambling people, all of whom were yanking the ropes of the sails or straining to turn the steering wheel. **

**In the center of it all, a man and woman clung to each other. **

**The woman, who's hair was dark and flying around her in the wind, buried her face into the man's chest. "Help!" she cried uselessly, though there was nothing anybody could do.**

**A wave the size of a mountain rose beside the ship, throwing the entire thing in shadow for a brief moment. **

**In that moment, the woman looked up at Jack, and her eyes were wide and knowing as they met his. **

"**You," she gasped.**

**And then the wave came down, crushing her and everybody else on the ship into nothing.**

**.**

* * *

***Selcouth **(English) - adj. _Unfamiliar, rare, strange, and yet... **marvelous**; Experiencing something **new** that is both **unusual** and **curious**_


	4. Resfeber

Chapter 4. Resfeber

* * *

**Elsa**

She hurried past the servant boy before he could notice the effects of her touch.

"Dear, what's your hurry?" Diana called, bounding after her, "Let me check that bruise on your face. How on Earth did that happen? You didn't even fall on your head!"

But Elsa didn't slow down. She sprinted as fast as she could, nearly stumbling over her own feet, through hallways and up flights of stairs and past staring servants, who were probably wondering what the queen-to-be was doing running around the castle in her nightgown.

She didn't stop until she reached her bedroom door, which she slammed shut behind her as she flung herself into the room onto the icy floor that began to form even more ice when her skin touched it. Her loose hair hung on either side of her face as she lay on her hands and knees, choking back sobs.

Something about that servant boy's face had triggered something within her.

But what?

_His skin and hair were as white as the moon. _

Her head snapped up, and she mentally scolded herself for thinking such ridiculous thoughts. There was absolutely no way that that was the Angel Boy from her mother's story.

That had been a mere _story._

Still, the thought of her mother was enough to grip her heart like a vice. She pressed her hand to her mouth as the tears started to run, burning her face like a dozen lit cigars being dragged down her cheeks, before they froze instantly against her skin.

The ice around her started to thicken.

_Tap tap tap._

"Elsa?"

She kept silent as her sister's voice traveled through the thick wooden door.

"Elsa there's-" Anna paused for a second and cleared her throat, before restarting the sentence in a more formal way. "Your majesty? Er, I mean, your highness? No, majesty. I think." Brief awkward silence. "Well anyways, there is a, uh, gentleman here requesting your presence."

Elsa rubbed away the tears that stuck to her face and sat up, clearing away the sobs that lingered in her throat. "Turn him away."

She couldn't handle company right now, or allowing the gates to be open. Not until her coronation, anyways.

"Yeah, um..." Anna replied, a hint of embarrassment in her voice, "See, the _thing_ is... He's not a townsperson. He's a servant, and he _might_ be standing right next to me. He says it's urgent!" She added this last part hastily.

"_Anna..."_ Elsa groaned, before smoothing her hair back with a sigh, trying to compose herself. She struggled to keep her voice calm. "Can his matter not be discussed with the head maid Diana? Or perhaps with the servants' supervisor?"

There was some whispering between Anna and the visitor, before Anna responded. "He says he needs to speak to you personally... it's urgent!" She repeated this last part with equal haste.

Elsa took a deep breath. It would seem very suspicious to the servant if she refused him now. There was enough suspicion among the servants already.

"Very well," she replied reluctantly, "Send him to the main hall. I will meet him in ten minutes to discuss whatever situation he feels is so 'urgent.'"

"Okay."

And she listened to Anna's footsteps retreat down the hall.

With another sigh, Elsa got to her feet, and turned to the oakwood wardrobe against the wall.

* * *

"Conceal, don't feel. Conceal, don't feel."

She muttered this same phrase under her breath as she followed Diana, who was guiding her to the main hall.

Keeping up appearances, she had changed from her thin nightdress and loose tangled hairstyle to a long-sleeved navy gown and tight bun; A proper look for a future queen. Still, it was difficult to breathe in the corset she had to wear. Or, at least, that's what she blamed her struggle to breathe on.

Nervous, she plucked fumblingly at the white gloves she wore.

"You musn't fret so much," Diana told her as they walked down a flight of steps, "It's just one person. It's not even a townsperson. It's somebody who lives and works within the castle."

"That doesn't change the fact that it's a _person,_" Elsa mumbled, trying hard to swallow the fear and panic that rose in her throat, "If I slip up-"

"You won't," Diana interrupted, "You will go in there, you will listen to whatever request the servant asks of you, and then you will decide whether to grant or deny it. It should take fifteen minutes tops, just a quick in and out. Okay?"

Elsa visibly blanched, but nodded.

"Alright," the elderly maid said, though she didn't look satisfied with her own advice, and she reached for the doorknobs of the tall doors that lead to the main hall, "Here we go."

The doors swung open.

"Presenting," Diana said in a loud monotone that echoed off the walls, as she bowed with her eyes to the floor, "Princess Elsa, Future Queen of Arendelle."

And with a flourish, she straightened from her bow and turned away, throwing Elsa a reassuring look, before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Elsa walked forward, her eyes never leaving the ground and her gloved hands clutching her gown as she pulled it up a few centimeters to avoid tripping over it.

She cleared her throat nervously as she came to a halt a few meters in front of the servant, still staring down. "What have you to ask of me?" she asked, managing to keep her voice from shaking, before she raised her head, "I'll listen to whatever you have to say with- _Gah!"_

She stepped back with a gasp.

It was the white-haired servant boy whom she had bumped into a mere twenty minutes earlier.

"Listen," the boy said, his voice quiet but urgent, ignoring her alarm and walking forward. He was closer than he was supposed to be, closer than any servant or peasant had ever dared to come; They were a mere inches apart. "I need to talk to you."

He appeared to be glowing, his words trembling slightly, as though he was struggling to contain some kind of excitement.

As though just talking to her was the most exciting thing he had ever done in his entire life.

She took a step back, indignant and mildly fearful. If he managed to accidentally touch her... "H-How dare you stand so close to me? Servants are forbidden to-"

"I'm not a servant." He cut her off without hesitation, as though he weren't talking to the future queen of Arendelle. "I lied."

She should've seen that coming. Upon closer examination, she realized he wasn't even in uniform. He wore a tan shirt with matching trousers beneath a short brown cloak, all which looked like attire from before this century.

_His clothes looked like they were from a completely different time. _

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. _Outrageous, ridiculous, impossible. _"I could have you arrested for impersonating a servant," she told him, impressed with how strong and firm her voice sounded, "I imagine you found the secret passageway through the fountain in the village square?"

"No," the boy replied, looking impatient and not at all worried about being arrested, "I wasn't aware there was a passageway, thanks for the tip though. And I dare you to call the guards on me, we can see how well that works out."

Was that a threat? What an attitude this boy had!

Her fear ebbed as her temper flared.

"What do you seek?" she snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at him in a very un-queenly way, "Wealth? Or is it the reason why these gates were closed that you want? Because we've dealt with people like you before, and I swear-"

"How can you see me?"

That unexpected question stopped her right in her tracks. "I- what?"

"How can you see me?" he repeated, before sighing impatiently, "Here, I need to try something."

And, for an unknown reason, he reached out to touch her arm.

"Guards!" she shouted without thinking, attempting to evade his touch by taking a desperate step back, before tripping over her own feet and falling backwards onto the ground, "Guards!"

If he were to touch her, he'd find out her secret for sure.

No sooner had the words left her lips, the doors burst open, and a dozen armored men burst into the room, swords unsheathed. These swords were lowered, however, when the knights looked around the room in confusion. "Er... what is it, your majesty?

"Arrest him!" she ordered, pointing up at the boy, who was shaking his head irritably, as though she was an idiot trying to do something useless, "He has managed to sneak into the castle and-"

"Um... arrest who?"

Elsa stared, mouth wide. "Th-The boy!" she exclaimed incredulously, though her voice faltered, "Standing right in front of me! He... he's right there..." Her voice trailed off at the concerned looks on the guards' faces, and she turned her head and looked up at the boy, a gasp escaping her lips.

He looked right back at her, his eyes intense and boring into hers, full of sympathy and wonder and... something else...

_His eyes were so... haunted._

"He left," Elsa lied quietly, her words directed at the guards but her eyes never leaving his, "He fled out the door. Just a moment ago. He was headed back into town. You should go, um... find him."

"Yes, your majesty," the guard up front said, looking confused but determined, and the guards hurried away.

Elsa and the boy looked at each other for a brief moment more, before he very slowly reached out with his free hand, the one that wasn't holding the long and slender wooden staff with a G shaped arch at the edge.

What in the world did he use that for?

"Let me help you up."

Without thinking, she almost took his hand.

She pulled back at just the last moment, her gloved fingers curling into a fist, and she quickly got to her feet on her own. "I need an explanation," she told him curtly, though she couldn't keep the startled breathlessness out of her voice.

His mouth turned up on one side. "That's actually what_ I _came to _you_ for."

* * *

She leaned against the table that stood at the front of the main hall, her knees giving out beneath her.

"Do you need a minute?" Jack asked, smirking as he examined his fingernails casually.

"Yes, I do," Elsa replied, her voice muffled by her hand, feeling incredibly dizzy as her thoughts whizzed around her brain faster than the speed of light. "You... from Mother's story, you...?"

Half an hour had gone by.

That time had been filled with the boy's story. The story of the lake that was the womb and the ice that had cracked above him, before he had risen into the air and taken his first breath of life and spent the rest of it unseen by anybody...

Except her mother.

"Story?" he repeated, a hint of hope lighting his eyes, "You mean, she talked about me?"

"Yes, of course," Elsa replied, her hand moving down to feel her speeding heart. "It was always my favorite story. About a boy who saved her. He had white hair, and old-fashioned clothes, and Winter pow- _Oh!"_ She started suddenly, a look of shock on her face, and she turned to look at him. He hadn't mentioned powers in his story. "Wait, do you have...?"

As a response, he held his hand out, his palm facing upward only a few centimeters from her face.

She watched as a snowflake slowly formed above it, her blue eyes wide. Her next words were a faint squeak.

"Oh my."

She slumped against the table, placing both elbows on it's surface. For a brief second, she breathed deeply, holding her spinning head in her hands.

After a moment, however, she straightened herself once more, regaining her sophistication and poise in an instant. "But why could my mother see you?" she asked, her shock wearing off as curiosity took over, "Why can Anna see you? Why can _I _see you?"

He shrugged, twirling his staff idly in his hands. "I have no clue." Some of his casualness left, and he bowed his head with a breathy laugh, and the next thing he said lacked all sarcasm, and was so quiet she struggled to hear him:

"You have no idea how amazing it feels to talk to somebody."

Without her own knowledge, Elsa's eyes softened, and she had half a mind to place a hand on his shoulder. She quickly shook this impulse away, and instead decided to ask him one more question.

"What is your name?"

He looked up, and his blue eyes were back on hers.

"My name is Jack Frost."

She quickly averted her eyes at his gaze, and felt a hint of heat creep up her cheeks against her own will. "But if you've been alone all your life..." she said to the floor, her voice thoughtful, "How do you know your name?"

He ducked his head as well, fumbling with the staff. "The Moon told me so."

After a moment of letting this sink in, she opened her mouth to respond.

At that exact moment, however, the doors opened, and a small group of servants came scrambling in, chattering excitedly.

"More floor polish! We must get more floor polish!"  
"Someone needs to find me a rug with tassels."  
"Has anyone seen that Joan of Arc painting?"

At the sight of their future queen, however, they all went silent, and there was a sudden wave of bows and curtsies, followed by murmurs of "Your highness."

Anxiety hit Elsa like a hurricane.

The buzzing hum of conversation resumed as the servants searched the room for the things they needed. They had no idea that their princess was mentally shattering at their presence.

She had to get out of there.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jack called, as she hurried towards the door.

Elsa ignored this and exited the room, clutching her gown up to her knees and dashing down the hall, strands of hair coming undone from her neat bun.

Her control was dissipating at a rapid rate.

"Elsa!"

A hand curled around her wrist, forcing her to come to a halt.

She gasped, turning around sharply to see Jack clutching her arm, breathing hard from his chase after her.

"Elsa, what-?"

"How_ dare_ you!" she exclaimed angrily, yanking out of his grip, "If you ever touch me again, I'll-"

She was interrupted by his gasp of shock.

His hand, which had pushed aside the top of her glove when he'd grabbed her, was slowly glazing over with thin white frost.

"Elsa... did you...?"

But she was already running again, disappearing down the hall.

He started after her.

"Elsa!"

"Stay away from me!"

Up a flight of steps they went.

"Elsa, wait a minute!"

"Leave me _alone!"_

Down another hallway.

"Elsa!"

"_Ugh!"_

She let out a cry of rage and turned on her heel to face him, so abruptly that he nearly bumped into her. He backed up, however, at the look on her face.

Her eyes were blazing, her hands curled up into shaking fists, and the floor... _the floor..._

Curly tendrils of glittering ice branched out on the maroon carpet beneath her, spreading at a rapid rate.

"Jack Frost," she said through grit teeth, breathing hard with stray strands of platinum curls dangling in her eyes, softening her face but giving her a wild look, "I forbid you to come near me. I want you to go away, and I want you to _stay away._"

And this time, when she turned and dashed away, he did not follow.

* * *

Night had fallen.

Elsa sat on the floor in the center of her bedroom, wearing her nightgown once more, with her knees pulled up to her chest.

She heard Anna's voice, muffled through the multiple walls that separated them, as she sang to herself, undoubtedly in her favorite room in the whole castle; The gallery.

Did that girl ever sleep?

_The sky is awake._

Oh, how Elsa wished to join her.

"Conceal it," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes and rocking slightly, pressing her chin to the tops of her knees, "Don't feel it."

She cringed as the ice thickened and cracked on the ground around her. "Don't let it show." Her voice was so quiet it was practically nothing.

But in her head it was as loud as a scream.

"Conceal."

Frost laced it's way up the walls.

"Don't feel."

Her heart pounded in her ears.

"Conceal."

Shards of jagged ice encircled her like a deathly trap.

"Don't feel."

Her eyes squeezed shut tighter.

"Conceal."

Crystalline chunks of blue and white erupted from the ground.

"Don't feel."

Her voice was so quiet even she couldn't hear it anymore.

"Don't feel."

The fear consumed her.

"_Don't feel."_

"What are you saying?"

With a gasp, she jumped, releasing her knees and falling backwards onto her hands.

Leaning against the wall by her window was Jack Frost, who watched her curiously.

"H-How did you get in here?" she squeaked, her voice unusually shrill as she reached up and snatched a long white robe off of the edge of her bed, covering her nightgown-clad self.

Her cheeks were flaming.

Jack threw his staff over his shoulders, holding each end with both hands. "Window," he said casually. "What were you whispering just now?"

She stared at him, ignoring his question. "The window?" she exclaimed in disbelief, "It's hundreds of feet from the ground!"

"I have ways to get to high places," he told her simply, looking down at her with a smirk, "So why is it that every time I see you, you've just fallen to the ground?"

She got to her feet in an instant, a twinge of irritation fluttering in her chest.

"Did you hear _anything _that I told you this afternoon?" she snapped, pulling herself up to her fullest height.

His smirk broadened. "Do you think I'm going to listen to you just because you're queen?"

He chuckled when she failed to answer him, her eyes wide and her jaw dropped, showing obvious offense.

_This Winter boy is _crazy.

After a second, he spoke again: "I want you to show me."

"Show you?" she repeated, eyes even wider in alarm as she tightened the belt of her robe.

"Your powers," Jack clarified, his eyebrows raising, "I mean, these are nice and all..." He gestured to the ominous spikes of ice that stuck out of the ground. "...but I bet you can make something less... terrifying?"

"I don't make these on purpose," Elsa replied bitterly, "I can't control it."

"Really?"

She looked up at the shock in his voice. He was staring at the ground, his white bangs covering his eyes and blocking his expression. "When I lose control, I cause blizzards. I bet you have more control than you think. I bet you can make some beautiful things... when you try."

"I don't _try,_" she retorted, though his comment had flattered her without her wanting it to, "I'd never _try _to create this. This isn't a gift from the Moon, Jack. This is a curse."

"Do you have any idea where it came from?" he asked seriously, all signs of joking gone.

She ducked her head, her shoulders nudging up in a shrug. "I don't know. I was born with it."

There was a brief silence.

"So do you want to know how I got up here, or what?" Jack asked after a moment.

Despite herself, Elsa gave in to her curiosity and nodded.

When he didn't answer, she looked up, and exhaled sharply when she saw that he had silently walked toward her, now standing mere inches away from her.

His eyes, a couple inches in front of and above hers, never left her blue ones.

"If I show you how I got up here," he told her quietly, "You have to show me your powers. And I don't mean scary icy deathtraps."

Front teeth digging into her bottom lip, she considered this.

_Say no._

"Deal?" he asked, holding out his hand, "I promise you won't hurt me."

_Elsa, say no._

Ignoring the voice in her head, she reached out.

_Think of Father._

Her hand hesitated mere centimeters from his, fingers curling slightly.

_Don't show him anything.  
_

Slowly, she started to pull her hand back.

_Don't let him in.  
_

She was on the verge of shaking her head, of refusing Jack's offer.

Then, suddenly, a new voice rang through her mind, a brighter voice, a happier voice, a voice full of light.

_Let it go._

Her hand was moving towards his once more_, _fingertips mere centimeters away.

_Take his hand._

And then her hand met his, and she could feel its chill despite the gloves she wore.

A mischievous grin spread across his face as he lead her to the window, which he opened, and he helped her step up onto the ledge.

The ground seemed to a be a million miles away, and her stomach turned as she looked down at it and balanced on the thin windowsill.

Despite the fact that it was the middle of July, the wind that whispered through her hair and made her nightgown flutter around her ankles was _chilly._

"What now?" she asked, looking at Jack, who stood beside her.

She supposed that, since she was standing on a windowledge in her nightclothes with a complete stranger (who was also immortal and invisible), she should feel like she was in some kind of danger.

But she didn't.

She still started in shock, however, when Jack suddenly shouted into the sky:

"Wind! Be gentle with her; She's new to this!"

And she gasped in alarm as her slipper-clad feet left the windowsill.

* * *

***Resfeber** (Swedish) - n. _The restless and rapid race of a traveler's heart **before a journey begins**, where **anxiety** and **anticipation** clash and are tangled together to make a **panicky/excited** **feeling** in one's chest; "**Travel Fever**"_


	5. Antebellum

Chapter 5. Antebellum

* * *

**Jack**

"Jack, I can't."

They were both on the ground again, standing on the side of an enormous mountain that stood just outside of Arendelle.

The trip here from Elsa's bedroom window had been difficult at first, and mildly hilarious. The second her feet had left the floor, Elsa had gasped in shock, her eyes widening in alarm before squeezing shut tight in fear. She had wobbled unsteadily on thin air for a moment, her arms splayed out on either side of her and her feet kicking uselessly, before the Wind had surged her forward. At first, she was obviously terrified, though she did very well in hiding it as they soared side-by-side over the sleeping villages that bordered the castle. But after a while, she seemed to relax; Or, at least, relax as much as this poised and proper agoraphobic queen-to-be could.

After ten minutes of riding on the gentle yet rapid Wind, Jack had steered them to this mountain. A deal was a deal.

He had shown her his powers; Now it was her turn.

"Nobody can see you here," he told her, standing behind her and watching her hands fumble together nervously. She had taken her gloves off, and he now held them in his hand. She looked more afraid without them than she had looked when she was hundreds of feet above the ground.

When was the last time she had been outside of that castle, anyway?

"Nobody can think you're a monster here," he added, hoping this may help, "Up here, you can be whatever you want to be."

"I don't want to be anything," Elsa snapped, whirling around suddenly and startling him into stepping back. Her anger seemed to flare out almost at random; Some things she'd take with queenly patience, and other things she'd take with blind rage. "I just want to be normal."

_Yeah, I'm with you there, _he thought.

"My_ parents_ were normal," she continued, sighing as her fury seemed to fade and turn to mild exasperation, "I don't understand why _I'm _the one that has to... why Anna never..."

The mention of her sister seemed to make her even more uncomfortable.

For _him_, however, it was the mention of her parents that stirred something unsettling within his stomach.

**The waves were crashing.**

"I think I know the problem," he said after a moment, pushing away these dark thoughts and replacing them with a sudden idea, "About your powers. You're always thinking a bunch of sad and depressing things when you use them, right? Then they just flare out uncontrollably because your thoughts get so bad."

She looked at him, her arms crossed. "I can't help it."

He nodded understandably. "Well... why don't you just think of something you like?"

Elsa ducked her head, not responding.

A brief moment went by.

Jack stared. "Don't you _like _anything?"

"Of course!" she replied indignantly, "I like plenty of things."

He waited for her to continue, but she didn't.

"Such as...?" he said finally.

She raised her head, biting her lip as she always seemed to do when she struggled to think, before she shook her head. "I don't... I can't..."

"Oh, come on," Jack said, leaning against his staff and staring at her in disbelief, "You're a _girl_. Not just that, you're a _princess. _Don't you like girly princess stuff? Flowers and rainbows and dresses and chocolate and-"

She had been scowling at him the moment he had mentioned _girly_ _princess stuff, _but he noticed her eyes light up slightly at this last one, and he smirked. "Your highness," he said teasingly, leaning forward, "Do you _like _chocolate?"

Her cheeks flushed pale pink, and she turned away. "That's not going to work," she said hopelessly, and started to reach for her gloves, "I'm sorry, Jack Frost, but I am going back on my word. I cannot show you my powers."

But he wasn't going to back out so easily. Not only could she _see _him, she had powers _just like_ _his._ There was no way was he going to pass up on seeing them.

He held her gloves above his head, and even when she stood on tiptoe she could not reach them. "You are such a _child_," she exclaimed, hopping a few times but still unable to reach, "Give me my gloves!"

"What about..." he said thoughtfully, ignoring her words, "your sister?"

She paused in her useless reaching, and lowered her arm, the irritation leaving her face all at once.

That did the trick.

"My sister?" she repeated breathlessly, taking a step back and crossing her arms again.

Jack had to think for a moment, to remember everything he knew about Princess Anna in the brief time they had spent together before they had gone to Elsa's door.

She was a chatterbox; That was for sure. And she was a social butterfly. When Jack had approached her back in the ballroom to ask for the queen, she seemed thrilled that somebody was talking to her, and gave him practically her entire life's story in ten minutes.

"Yeah, your sister..." he replied, lowering her gloves but not giving them to her, "And her babbling and her singing and the way she trips over her own feet."

The corner of Elsa's mouth twitched. "She never could watch where she was going," she said quietly, her voice full of adoration as she reminisced.

"What was your favorite thing to do with her?" he urged her on, feeling that this was progress, "You know, back before you kept to your room all the time."

This time, she didn't have to bite her lip and think. "We used to build snowmen."

Perfect.

"Could you build one for me now?"

She looked up suddenly, her eyes clearing as she came back to the present. "Jack, you know I can't," she replied, her voice laced with panic, and a jagged spike of ice erupted out of the snow beside her, and she winced.

"No, don't do that!" he told her, waving his hands in a _stop _motion, "Think about your sister, Elsa. Think about Anna. Channel your power into that one thought."

Her eyes were closed as she seemed to concentrate. Did that mean that he was actually getting somewhere with her? She took a deep breath, and he stepped back in surprise when she actually uncrossed her arms and started to move her hands in a slow, intricate wave, and the snow around him started to move.

She was actually doing it.

A perfect, large, spherical ball of snow floated in midair, and she gently let it down, where it landed gracefully in the snow.

It was the base for a snowman.

Her eyes opened, and she stared at her work in alarm. "I did it," she breathed.

"Finish it," he suggested, grinning at her surprise, "I want to see what it looks like when it's finished."

She seemed almost eager to do just this, and her eyes closed again as she filled her mind with her sister's face.

As he watched her attempt to make the snowman's middle, something in her face changed. Her eyes were still closed but not as tightly, as though she were content.

As though the storm within her was calm.

He had never seen her look this way before; She looked almost... happy.

It made him smile, a real genuine smile, which he only did around children.

On went the snowman's torso, and Elsa was glowing, her eyes opening in surprise and glee. "Jack, did you see...?"

"Yeah," he said, laughing, "Now for the head. You can do it, Elsa."

She nodded, and this time she didn't close her eyes. She looked almost confident as she summoned the snow around her and brought it together to make a head, and she was just about to lower it onto the half-finished snowman when a hint of worry flickered in her eyes.

"Jack," she said, suddenly fearful, "I don't think I can-"

"You've made it this far," he told her, all traces of a smile leaving his face, "You can do this. It's just the head, Elsa."

Elsa nodded, but the panic was back; She was beginning to doubt herself again. The sureness from before was fading rapidly.

The snowman's head wobbled in midair, mere inches from the rest of it.

"You can do this, Elsa."

It was moving forward, but very slowly.

"Don't panic."

It hovered about a foot above the torso, and she started to lower it.

"It's almost done."

It was perhaps three inches away.

"You _can't_ let this fear control you."

Two.

"Don't let this fear control you, Elsa."

One.

"Don't let this fear contro-"

"_No. Let it."_

Jack and Elsa gasped in unison as a voice rang throughout the entire mountain they stood on; It was a strange voice. Smooth, dark, and full of bad intentions.

Elsa's concentration broke, and the snowman's head fell to the ground, collapsing into a mere pile of snow.

"Who said that?" Jack called, raising his staff and moving beside Elsa as an eerie chuckle filled his ears.

This time, it was the Wind who spoke: _"Jack. Get out of there."_

"What?" he asked, confused, looking around at the white snow and black sky but finding nobody, "Why?"

"_Get out of there," _the Wind repeated urgently, _"He's back."_

He was just about to inquire about who _he _was when his head suddenly began to cloud.

And everything went black.

* * *

**When he opened his eyes, he wasn't on the mountain anymore; He was in a village. The sun was up and the streets were crowded with bustling people. **

**All of whom walked right through him.**

**Normally, he'd disappear into the air with a wave of his staff and escape the uncomfortable feeling. But his staff wasn't with him. **

**And as each oblivious person went through him, he seemed to lose a little more of his energy, until he sank to his knees.**

**Villager after villager stepped right through him, eager to get to where they needed to be and ignoring him completely. It was nauseating, having each living breathing person move through him as though he were but a shadow, a trick of the light, a figure of nothing.**

**It was like he didn't even exist.**

"_**I've been keeping an eye on you for quite some time, Jack Frost."**_

**That wasn't the Wind talking. **

**He was gasping, his eyes squeezed shut and his hands clutching his chest as the strange spirals of glimmering blue marked every inch of his skin as people walked through him from every direction. **

**He wanted to ask who the speaker was, but he felt if he even opened his mouth he would be sick. However, when he raised his head and opened his eyes, he saw a dark unmoving figure that stood out among the others, only a few feet away from him, going in and out of vision as people walked in front of him. **

**It seemed to be staring right at him.**

"_**Oh... isn't this sad?" **_**the voice murmured, coming from that figure, "****_You've been in this situation far too many times, haven't you? All these people completely oblivious to your presence."_**

**The scene around Jack seemed to melt, all the people disappearing into nothing as the setting changed somehow, turning into a beach where the wind was wild and the waves were crashing violently.**

"_**Of course you remember this,"**_** the figure continued, who was the only thing that hadn't changed around him, ****_"Your ultimate loss of control. Your accident. Your mistake. Your killing of innocent people, including that one little girl that you cared so much for."_**

"**Stop it," Jack called weakly, holding his face, "Who are you?"**

"_**I think the real question is; Who are **_**you, ****_Jack Frost_?" the voice murmured, closer than it had been before, _"You're a murderer, Jack. You think you were put here to help children? No. You're meant to do terrible things."_**

**A cold hand, too cold for Jack, was placed on his shoulder, sharp nails digging into his skin.**

"_**When are you going to tell her the truth, Jack?"**_

"**Stop it."**

"_**When are you going to tell this Elsa of yours how her mother **_**really****_ died?"_**

"**Stop it..."**

"_**When, Jack?"**_

**"Stop it!"**

_**"When?"**_

* * *

"Jack?"

He opened his eyes, breathing hard, and saw the sky. The Moon looked down at him, silent as usual.

What just happened?

He was lying on his back, and was shaking all over.

Was he, Jack Frost, actually _cold?_

Kneeling beside him and looking down at him with concern was Elsa.

"Stop what? What happened?" she asked, looking like she wanted to help him sit up, but she merely clutched her hair helplessly, not wanting to touch him. "There was a noise, coming from up the mountain, and then you just... collapsed."

"I don't..." Jack struggled to respond, sitting up and brushing the snow off of his shoulders, "Did you, I mean... All of that, did you see it?"

Her eyebrows pinched with concern, and she shook her head. "I just heard something," she told him, handing him his staff as they stood, "Some kind of animal. It's strange, it almost sounded like a voice. It sounded like it said..."

He looked at her, alarmed and nervous. "It said...?"

She shook her head. "I don't know," she replied dismissively, "It doesn't matter. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he muttered, handing her the gloves that he still held, "We should... probably get you back."

* * *

_You're a murderer, Jack._

He shuddered as he helped Elsa through her window, while he himself stayed outside.

He was far behind in his work, and had quite a few places to bring snow angels and icicles to. The children would be expecting these things when they woke up.

"Thank you," Elsa told him, a little awkwardly, leaning her hands on the windowsill and looking up at him, "I haven't..." She cleared her throat. "I haven't made a snowman since I was nine, and although it wasn't finished, I... Thank you."

He forced a laugh, trying to push the strange voice and frightening hallucinations out of his head.

"Hey, you know," he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, "I think you can make a lot more than scary icy deathtraps when you try to have a little fun instead."

_Have a little fun instead._

An overwhelming sense of deja vu made him inhale sharply.

Elsa stared at him, concerned once more. "Are you _sure _you're alright, Jack?"

He shook his head a little to clear his thoughts. "I- yeah, I just..."

Why couldn't he talk? He was normally so eloquent. Then again, nobody could ever hear him before now.

"I should go."

"Wait!" Elsa called as he was turning away, and he turned back, startled. She looked down, fidgeting with the gloves on her hands. "Will you... come back?"

Despite himself, he smirked. "What ever happened to _'I want you to go away, and I want you to stay away'_?"

"I do _not _sound like that,_" _she replied, glaring at the shrill high-pitched squeal he had mimicked her in, "And you didn't listen to me before. Why would you now?"

Did she really want to see him again?

"Good point," he replied, grinning, "You couldn't pay me to stay away."

Well _that _gave off the totally wrong impression. He felt heat creep up his cheeks, which he'd never felt before.

But Elsa didn't look startled at what he had just said; She actually looked almost smug.

"You know," she said casually, reaching up to her open window, "Your cheeks turn blue when you blush. Did you know that?"

And with a very un-queen-ish smirk of her own, she closed the window.

* * *

***Antebellum** (English) - adj. _Occurring or existing **before a** particular **war**; Pre-war  
_


	6. Euneirophrenia

Chapter 6. Euneirophrenia

* * *

**Elsa**

_Tap tap tap._

"Your highness."

She stirred and rolled over, before pulling the covers over her head and falling asleep once more, sinking back into her dream.

_Tap tap tap._

"Your highness! Have you any idea what time it is?"

The dream was fleeting; She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to keep the images from escaping the insides of her eyelids. She was flying...

_Tap tap tap_

"Elsa, I _will _come in there."

She threw her pillow over her face, ignoring Diana's threats; There was no way her most trusted maid would come barging in and intrude on the future Queen of Arendelle's living space. It was simply just not like her.

_BANG BANG BANG._

"I'M COMING IN."

Elsa bolted into a sitting position with a gasp as her bedroom door was thrown open with a crash, and in stormed a very annoyed Diana.

"Wha-?"

"Noon!" the maid exclaimed, setting a tray of food on Elsa's bedside table before marching over to the window and throwing open the curtains, allowing streams of late-morning sun to flood the room and make the icy floor glitter, "Your coronation rehearsal is in twenty minutes! Oh, I really hope I didn't break your door just now... Why did you sleep in so late? Today is very- What's this?"

Elsa, who had been rubbing her eyes sleepily and hardly listening to anything the outraged maid said, looked up at her change of tone. "What?" She followed Diana's gaze to see something sparkly and blue on the glass of the window, silhouetted against the sun.

She vaguely remembered what it was, and why it was there.

* * *

"_You know... your cheeks turn blue when you blush. Did you know that?"_

_Then she closed the window, before resting her head on the sill and watching him disappear into the sky. _

_Long after he had vanished into the darkness that was just starting to light up with dawn, she still sat there, going through the events of that night in her head repeatedly. _

_A small smile curved her mouth, making her face look brighter than it had looked in twelve years.  
_

"You couldn't pay me to stay away," _he had said._

_So he would come back._

_Idly, almost subconsciously, she reached up and ran the tip of her index finger over the glass of her window, making a small intricate shape, a snowflake, out of frost._

_He would come back._

* * *

It hadn't been a dream.

"It's..." she said, struggling to explain the sparkling bit of art on her window, "Well, uh, it's..."

"It's _gorgeous!"_ Diana exclaimed, abandoning all sternness as she examined the snowflake, "I've never seen you make something like this before. It's... it's actually... it's..."

"Pretty?" Elsa suggested feebly.

"_Beautiful!"_ the maid squealed, suddenly resembling a small excited child, "I've never seen you use your powers to make something so beautiful! Elsa, don't you know what this is? This is progress!" She beamed at Elsa, who was now distractedly sipping at the tea she had brought her. "What in the world could have possibly influenced this?"

Elsa nearly choked, and set down the teacup.

What would she say?

_Oh Diana, you would never believe it! It was wonderful; An invisible eighty-year-old teenage spirit took me out my window with his magic Winter powers, and we built a snowman... So now I feel amazing and extraordinary and invincible, and that little snowflake there is an expression of all that jumbled together mess of ecstatic emotions and feelings.  
_

Instead of that unbelievable answer, she merely shrugged. "I honestly have no idea."

* * *

She winced as her corset was tightened, clutching the back of a chair as the stiff fabric viciously pressed against her torso and seemed to realign her ribs. "Aren't I supposed to be able to _breathe?_"

"Nope." Diana gave a final tug before releasing the strings and moving around the stool Elsa stood on to examine her for a brief moment. "Now for the dress!"

She dashed over to a wardrobe, and, with a flourish, threw the doors open.

There stood Elsa's finished dress.

It was perfect, really; Simple, but elegant, with a black bodice and long teal sleeves to match the gown. It buttoned to her throat so she would be showing very little skin, which meant that on the off-chance that she _did_ have to dance with somebody, nobody would actually be touching her.

"Wow..." she breathed, hopping off the stool and running her fingers through the fabric, "Diana, it's amaz-"

"Oh, it's not amazing," Diana scoffed, pulling it off of it's hanger and unceremoniously yanking it over Elsa's head, "Not yet it isn't anyways, but it will be once we get it on you. Will you stop squirming?"

After five minutes of pulling and tightening, Elsa was placed in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror that leaned against the wall, facing her own reflection.

The dress was lovely; It made her look beautiful and dignified, nothing like the emotional wreck she usually felt like.

But still, Elsa found herself wishing for something lighter, looser, and lacking a corset; Something that swirled around her when she spun, something that actually allowed her to show her shoulders, to move her arms freely, to let her breathe.

But attire like that was unfitting for a queen. Especially one with a dangerous curse.

"We don't have to do much to your hair yet_,_" Diana told her, brushing through Elsa's tangled curls, "For now, I'll just plait it. But on Coronation Day, I think we should brush your bangs back away from your face and-"

"No," Elsa said quickly, "No, my bangs can stay down." _If only I could have my bangs be long enough to cover my entire face,_ she thought bitterly,_ then nobody would have to look at me during the entire coronation._

Diana looked at her understandingly. "Alright, we'll keep them down. But one of these days you'll have to show your pretty face." She didn't argue any further as she braided Elsa's hair, before she started to go on about how buns were the best hairstyle for coronations, it keeps your hair out of the way, and bla bla bla...

Elsa started to zone out.

_What were you whispering just now?_

_I bet you can make some beautiful things when you try._

_Up here, you can be whatever you want to be._

_Don't let this fear control you._

_You couldn't pay me to stay away._

Without her own realizing it, she let out a small sigh.

"Alright, who is he?"

Elsa jumped at Diana's question, coming back to the present and seeing her own reflection once more, now sporting a simple braid that ran down her back.

"He?" she repeated, trying to look politely confused.

The maid rolled her eyes, hands on hips. "You can't fool me, your highness," she said sternly, though there was a glimmer of humor in her pale eyes, "_He,_ Elsa. The boy. The one you're thinking about. The reason why you slept in so late. Possibly the reason for that gorgeous snowflake on your window. Who is he?"

Elsa ducked her head, fidgeting with her gloved hands. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about."

"Do you know what your sister looks like literally all the time?" Diana asked, turning to a wooden chest against the wall and rifling through it. "All dreamy and sighing and whatnot? You look like that right now. It's uncanny." She gave a small chuckle. "You know Elsa, when I said your mother wanted grandchildren, I didn't mean _now-"_

"Excuse me?!"

"-though don't get me wrong, I myself would enjoy the pitter-patter of tiny feet around this dull place-"

"What?!"

-but then there's the question of '_Is he fertile enough?'_ and _'Is he up to the task of-'"_

"_Diana!_"

"Aha!" the elderly woman exclaimed, ignoring Elsa's indignant sputtering and pulling an article of clothing out of the trunk, holding it up for Elsa to see, "I found it!"

It was a cape, a gentle violet color, that cascaded to the floor.

"Your mother wore this," Diana told her, no longer joking as she threw the cape dramatically around Elsa's shoulders and connected the blue jeweled clasp at her throat, "for your father's coronation."

Elsa's breath caught in her throat, and she looked at her reflection again.

She looked just like her mother; Regal, poised, and ready for anything. Exactly as a queen should look.

But not at all how she felt.

* * *

"And then the crown," the servant said in a dull monotone, "will be placed on your head."

Fighting the urge to sigh, Elsa leaned forward in a bow, and there was a brief awkward moment where the servant (who was playing the bishop) placed an invisible tiara into her hair.

They were ten minutes into the rehearsal.

The choir was practicing on the balcony above them, their sweet sound echoing through the Great Hall, and Diana stood off to the side along with every other maid, butler, and servant in the castle, trying desperately hard not to facepalm. "_Where_ is Princess Anna_?_" Elsa heard her whisper to the maid beside her, who merely shrugged.

Probably still sleeping, Elsa thought. Anna was constantly staying up all night.

_The sky is awake._

"And now, you take the scepter and orb in your hands," the servant continued with a bored sigh, holding up a pillow that held two props; A candlestick and an apple, "And then you turn to the crowd while I recite."

"Can I keep my gloves on?" Elsa asked nervously.

"Not for the real ceremony, your highness," he yawned back, "But for the rehearsal, sure."

She nodded, and took the props in her hands, before turning to the invisible audience.

Those seats would be full of people in less than a week.

She shuddered as the servant started to recite the royal vows.

"_Sehm hon hell-drr in-um hell-gum..._"

What if her powers leaked through her gloves? Was that possible?

"._..ayg-num ok krund ee thes-um hell-gah..._"

Was ice starting to form on the red flesh of the apple she held, or was she imagining it? Her hands started to shake.

"._..gah stanth- _Oh wait no, I meant to say _stahth _not _stanth..."_

Elsa took a deep breath, her grip on the props tightening. She wasn't going to last much longer without completely breaking down.

"... _ehk teh frahn_- Oops, I mean _frahm_, sorry your highness-"

"Will you get on with it already?" Diana called from where she stood against the wall, earning a dirty look from the maids around her, "Who assigned you the part of the bishop, anyways?"

The servant glared, before continuing; _"__...fur-ear u-thear..."_

Was that ice? That was definitely ice. It glimmered on the dull metal of the candlestick she held.

It was leaking through her gloves!

She bit her lip, fighting the impulse to squeeze her eyes shut as she felt herself come upon the brink of a panic attack.

"Psst... Elsa!"

She jumped, nearly dropping the candle and apple, before looking up in the direction of the voice, and her eyes widened at what she saw.

Jack Frost was lounging casually on one of the wooden rafters above her, looking down at her with a grin.

Once he saw her see him, he swung his legs over the beam and allowed himself to fall the twenty feet to the ground, landing gracefully beside her, swinging his staff idly in his hands. "Well, this is interesting."

"Shh!" she hissed, though she was smiling as well.

He came back.

So it _definitely _had not been a dream.

"What? Nobody can hear me anyways," he told her, before standing in front of her and mimicking the servant's vows in a rather disrespectful manner;"_Bla bla bla-bla blaaa bla bla..._"

She covered her mouth to hide her her grin, earning some confused looks from the maids and butlers that watched her.

"_...Queen Elsa of Arendelle_," the servant finally finished in his bored monotone, and Elsa turned away from Jack, who was now making faces that she had to fight to keep from laughing at, and she placed the props back onto the pillow.

"After that," the servant continued with yet another yawn, "we are to get you to your fitting room, touch up your makeup, and hurry you to the ballroom, where the celebration will take place." He rolled his eyes. "Yippee."

"Great," Elsa said politely, clearing her throat to hide the giggle that crept up her throat (Jack now stood behind the servant, mimicking his every word with a comically bored face) "Are we, um, finished? I'd like to return to my bedroom."

The servant nodded, and it took all of Elsa's control not to sprint from the room. She managed to stay brisk and graceful before she made it to the hallway, where Jack greeted her with a smirk.

"I told you I'd come back, didn't I?" he laughed, noticing the amazed look on her face as they started up the stairs, "Although I have to say, it almost wasn't worth it; That rehearsal was the most boring thing I've ever witnessed in my life."

Elsa opened her mouth to give a snappy comeback, but suddenly found herself to feel very... _shy._

She had never felt that way before.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked as they turned a corner, his smile fading as he mistook her coyness for sorrow, "I can leave if you don't-"

"No, no," Elsa said quickly, before hastily veering the topic off of herself, "I was actually wondering if _you _are alright. You were acting very strange last night..."

His collapsing unconscious into the snow and his claims to have heard strange sounds was incredibly bizarre. She had nearly forgotten about that.

"Oh, right..." Jack replied, scratching the back of his head nervously and looking down, "Yeah, that was just..." He sighed, seeming to make a decision about something, and stopped walking. Elsa stopped as well, confused and curious.

He was so serious all of a sudden. And somber.

She didn't like him that way.

"What is it Jack?"

Why wouldn't he look at her? He stared at the ground, running his fingers through his hair in a very distressed way. "Listen," he said slowly, and when he looked up she was startled to see that his eyes looked pained. "Elsa... look, there's something I-"

"_Elsa!"_

The two jumped at the voice that drifted down the hallway, and turned to see Diana hurrying towards them.

"What on Earth are you doing up here?" the maid asked, surprised to see Elsa there.

"Oh..." Elsa replied, looking at Jack and remembering that nobody else could see him, "I just... I'm going to my room."

"Your room's on the other side of the castle, Elsa," Diana pointed out, looking concerned, "This is your sister's hallway. What are you doing here?"

Elsa's heart plummeted. "My sister?" she repeated, backing away slowly, "Oh, I didn't... I need to get out of here."

Diana nodded. "Yes, you'd best do that," she suggested kindly, "Just so long as you keep your promise and talk to her on coron-"

The door behind her opened suddenly, and a just-woken Anna stood in it's doorway, her eyes squeezed shut as she gave an enormous yawn.

Elsa took advantage of this fortunate coincidence and quickly ducked around the corner of the hallway. Jack, however, didn't think as quickly.

"Oh," Anna exclaimed, opening her eyes and seeing Jack and Diana, giving them a cheerful smile, "It's you two!"

Jack winced, looking at Elsa for help, who was now peering around the corner at them.

Should he run? Should he talk back to Anna? Elsa wasn't sure what to tell him to do.

Diana merely stared at the youngest princess in confusion. "Two?" she repeated, looking at the empty hall.

Anna stepped forward, placing a hand on Jack's arm. "Oh, I guess you haven't met. This is one of the servants," she explained, before directing her next words to him, "You know, I never got your name. Do you need to see Elsa again? Is that why you're here?"

"Your highness," Diana said, staring at her in alarm, "Who, um..." Her eyes flickered to where Anna's arm hung in midair; To Diana, it looked like the princess was touching an invisible person. "Who are you talking to?"

"I'm talking to this servant guy person, obviously," Anna replied, laughing at Diana's ridiculousness and holding Jack's arm up, waving it slightly, "Who else?"

Elsa facepalmed.

This would not end well.

Diana looked at the empty space Anna gestured to once more, completely puzzled. "I, er... I don't see what... Are you feeling alright, Princess Anna?"

Jack cleared his throat awkwardly, obviously unsure how to react to this situation. _What do I do?_ he mouthed to Elsa, who was watching the scene before her with horror.

_I don't know! _she mouthed back.

"Wait a minute," Anna replied with a laugh, "You mean you don't see him?"

Eyes wide, Diana shook her head.

Anna laughed for a mere moment longer (an awkward, confused laugh) before her face fell abruptly and her eyes widened.

"What?" she said in a shrill squeak, and she looked up at Jack. "Why can't she see you?"

When he didn't answer her, instead merely giving her a sheepish smile, she blanched.

"But... but you _are _there," she insisted, her voice still shrill as she reached up and poked his shoulder. Then, with the look of a scientist performing an experiment, she took Diana's wrist (causing the old woman to look even more confused) and attempted to make her poke his shoulder as well.

Jack cringed as Diana's hand went right through his arm, and Anna dropped the maid's wrist in shock. "_What?!_"

Diana watched the princess with concern. "I think I'll just, uh, go fetch some... help."

And she hurried away, a little faster than necessary.

Elsa, still hiding around the corner, watched her sister gape at her invisible friend.

"She can't see you," Anna mumbled, wobbling slightly where she stood, "_I_ can see you, but she... and yesterday in the ballroom, when you... and they... and I... oh boy."

Oh, this should be good.

* * *

***Euneirophrenia** (English) - n. _A **peaceful state of mind** following a particularly **pleasant dream**._


	7. Magoa

Chapter 7. Magoa

* * *

**Jack**

"Let me get this straight..."

Princess Anna repeated this phrase for the fourth time, and he sighed, preparing for her to go through all the things he'd told her once again.

Twenty minutes had gone by since Anna had realized that Jack was invisible, and the two were now in the gardens that bordered the castle. He had sensed the tension between the two sisters back in the hallway, and had quickly steered Anna away from the hiding queen, leading her outside and explaining the entire story to her in order to give Elsa some time to escape.

Despite his excitement at being seen by another person, he was a bit weary; Princess Anna was a _chatterbox._ Rather than being all shocked, stunned, and silent after finding out what he was, as Elsa had been when she found out, Anna was unreasonably calm and inexplicably giddy.

"Okay, okay," she said, gesturing to him from where she sat on a stone bench, "So you're immortal. And you can talk to the wind." She paused. "And... you came out of the ice?"

He nodded, twirling his staff idly as he leaned against the fountain across from her. "Yep."

"Cool," she breathed, her eyes brighter than stars, "And you don't have any parents, right? You were brought here by the moon?"

"Apparently."

"You're also invisible."

"Thanks for the reminder."

"But my mother could see you!"

"Correct."

"And _I _can see you..."

"Obviously."

"And Elsa can see you?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you like Elsa."

"Yes." He did a double-take, his head snapping up as he blinked in alarm."Wait, what?"

"Aha!" Anna exclaimed, grinning widely as she pointed an accusing finger at him, "You said yes!"

Jack sputtered unintelligibly for a second. "N-no!" he finally managed to say, feeling heat creep up his cheeks. "I said _what."_

"No, you said _yes _first!" she argued with a laugh, "Admit it, Jack Frost. I can see it in your face." She paused. "By the way, your cheeks are turning blue. That's really weird. Does that mean that you're dying or that you're in love? Maybe both?"

"Neither!" he exclaimed, "I like Elsa, but I don't _like _her. Okay?"

She grinned. "So... it's more than that?"

"We are changing the subject!" he said loudly, ducking his head to the side to hide his face, before asking the question that had been nagging at his mind. "Look, what's up with you and Elsa?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," Anna replied with a smirk, crossing her arms.

"I'm serious!" Did she know about Elsa's powers? It was very unlikely; The way Elsa acted, it seemed to be a secret that only he knew.

But surely her own _sister _would know?

"What, uh," he said slowly, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, "What's the story between you two?"

Anna's smugness and smiles disappeared at the question, and she looked down. "I guess she didn't tell you, huh?"

He shook his head.

She sighed. "Figures. I'd hoped that maybe she had told you, so that _you_ could tell _me." _She gave another sigh, signaling an explanation. "We used to be best friends, and now she just sorta shuts me out. She never talks to me, and she ignores me, and she avoids me. I don't know if she's mad, or sad, or scared of something, but I feel like it's all my fault. And it's... it's like I'm invisible."

So she didn't know about Elsa's powers.

Jack stared at the ground, taking these words in. He knew what it felt like to feel invisible.

"What was she like before?" he asked, "You know, before she hid herself from everyone?"

Anna raised her head, and her eyes lit up. "She was _fun_," she told him earnestly, "We used to play outside every day, especially when Winter came..." She smiled as she reminisced. "She could make things with the snow that seemed almost magical."

"Yeah," Jack replied with a nervous chuckle, averting his eyes, "Imagine that."

"Of course you'd know all about that," she noted, nodding to the ice that clustered around his feet in the green grass, "By the way, what does the G stand for?"

"G?" he repeated, confused.

She gestured to his staff. "That was obviously carved to make a G, right? Why?"

Jack looked bemusedly at her for a moment, before holding his staff horizontally and examining the top end closely.

It _did _look like a G. How had he never noticed?

"I don't know," he told her honestly, "I didn't make it. I think the Moon did."

"The Moon..." she repeated dreamily, looking up at the sky, where the mid-afternoon sun hung in the air, "It's so weird, it's like my mother's story has come to life."

Jack didn't respond; The deceased queen was the last thing he wanted to talk about.

_You're a murderer, Jack._

"So do you like my sister, or what?"

He jumped, coming back to the present. "I thought we changed the subject."

"Yeah, we did," Anna replied casually, "Now we're changing it back. 'Cause I was thinking, if you marry my sister-"

"Excuse me?!"

"-that would make you like my brother, right? Or, brother-_in-law, _but still-"

"What?!"

"-not to mention I could become an _aunty, _which would be _awesome, _can you _imagine_-?"

"_Anna!_"

Anna sighed, smiling radiantly.

"I've always wanted a big brother."

Jack looked at her for a moment, a little startled at how genuine her words were.

He cleared his throat. "Well, uh... Your sister and I are, I mean... I'm not- She's not- _It's _notlike that, okay? We just met like yesterday."

"What, you don't believe in love at first sight?" Anna asked, staring at him critically.

"And you do?" he replied incredulously.

"Oh yes..." Anna's hands clasped together beneath her chin as she gazed off into the distance. "I think about it every day. It'll happen when I least expect it... and by that I mean on coronation day." She sighed dreamily. "He'll be charming and dashing and handsome, and it'll be instant magic, like a dream..."

Jack fought the urge to mimic gagging.

"So..." she said after a moment, coming back to herself and ducking her head, "You should probably get back to Elsa, right?"

"Yeah, I probably should."

She scratched her arm awkwardly. "Do you think... I mean... since she actually _talks_ to you and everything... could you...?"

"I'll talk to her," he told her, understanding what she was getting at, "But I can't make any promises. She's very, uh..."

"Yeah, I know," she said with a sigh, "Believe me."

There was a brief silence.

"Well," he said after a moment, standing up off of the edge of the stone fountain, "I'll see you later, okay?"

He started towards the castle doors.

"Jack?"

Upon hearing her call his name softly, he turned around.

Anna was looking at the ground, smiling. "Is it true that you saved my mother?"

His heart stopped, and he swallowed. _Yes, I did. But I also killed her too._

Slowly, he nodded.

Anna's smile grew.

"I think that, in a way," she said quietly, "it's like you're saving Elsa too."

And with that, she hopped off of the bench and skipped away.

* * *

He peeked in through the window, urging the Wind to open it swiftly and silently, before landing lightly on the carpeted rug of the bedroom.

He was so quiet, Elsa didn't even seem to notice him.

She was sitting on the ground before the large elegant fireplace, her legs pulled to her chest and her head resting on the tops of her knees as she watched the flames flicker. She was no longer in her coronation dress, but instead wore a plain black gown with long sleeves and brass buttons that went up to her throat.

She was whispering again; He struggled to understand what she was saying.

But then, after a moment, the words were clear.

"...conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel..."

It was like a quiet chant. And he didn't like it all.

Closing the window quietly behind him, he walked over to her and sat beside her wordlessly, looking into the fire alongside her.

She definitely knew he was there by now, but she made no sign of showing it.

Five minutes of silence went by before she finally spoke.

"I used to think that fire was the answer," she told him, still staring straight ahead. Her voice was so quiet and soft he almost couldn't hear her over the snaps and pops of the fireplace. "When I was fifteen, I was so desperate to rid myself of this curse. I would get so close to this fireplace that I got burns." She winced at the memory. "I was young and ignorant and thought that, maybe, I could just..." She trailed off, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand as her eyes started to water.

"You thought you could just melt it away," Jack finished for her, "Like ice."

She gave a slow, shaky sigh. "Yes."

More silence.

Then, she continued. "Mother and Father weren't happy with that. They used to argue all night about it when they thought I couldn't hear. They both knew the curse couldn't be tamed by something physical like fire; It needed to be something so much more. Father thought the answer was control. Mother thought the answer was..."

She trailed off a second time.

Jack was unable to predict an ending to that sentence. "Was...?"

Elsa hesitated a moment, before shaking her head and burying her face into her arms. "It's not important."

Silence once again.

Jack cleared his throat, and shifted backwards a bit, as the heat of the fire was becoming a bit too much against his Winter skin. "I talked to your sister today."

No response.

"She's nice."

Still unresponsive.

"My ear almost fell off because she talked so much, but she's still interesting."

Nothing.

He took a deep breath, abandoning any efforts of simple small talk and getting right to the big question: "Elsa, why did you shut her out?"

She didn't look up. "I had to."

This came off as absolutely ridiculous to him, and he shook his head. "Elsa, some people don't like to be alone."

He was a bit startled when her head snapped up, and she glared at him. "Do you think I _like _to be alone?"

"Well," he replied, shrugging, "You shut yourself away from the entire world, so I assumed-"

"Your assumptions are _wrong_," she snapped, "I did that for everybody's protection. I'm sorry I wasn't lucky enough to be _gifted _like _you."_

They were both on their feet all of a sudden, about two feet apart, scowling at each other.

Something familiar sparked in Jack's chest; His temper.

"Do you think that what the Moon gave me is a _gift?" _he asked incredulously, his hands subconsciously balling into fists, "I didn't always use my powers to make icicles and snowflakes, Elsa."

"Then what exactly did you use them for, Jack?" she asked sharply, her eyes hard as she glared at him.

His nerve failed him, and he averted his gaze, clearing his throat. "All that I'm saying is," he said quietly, "If people could see me, I'd... I wouldn't shut people out like you do!"

That was perhaps the worst thing about it. Since she was royal, beautiful, and visible, Elsa was born with the one thing Jack wanted more that anything in the world; Attention.

And she practically threw it away by hiding within the confines of her room.

"I shut people out to keep them safe," Elsa said through grit teeth, her voice venomously quiet, "I lock myself away and avoid the world because I'm a danger to it." Her voice rose as her anger flared. "Meanwhile, you're traveling the world and seeing things that I can only dream of! Bringing joy to children everywhere, making people smile with what you do, and creating _beautiful_ things!"She let out an irritated sigh and turned away from him for a moment, crossing her arms and silently fuming.

After a moment, she looked down, and turned around, and her next words were a soft whisper; "Jack, you have no idea what I'd give to be invisible."

Jack blinked, speechless. He had never heard her say so much at once, and with so much passion. She definitely didn't look like a queen just then; Her braid was coming undone and her eyes were blazing and her hands were balled up into fists and she was breathing heavily.

At that moment, she looked like a little girl.

A little girl who has had far too much responsibility thrust upon her shoulders.

It was snowing, and Jack wasn't sure which one of them had caused it. The small flakes drifted lightly from the ceiling and landed on the ground around them, eventually putting the dying fire out.

"I'm a monster, Jack," she told him, not meeting his eyes, "You're not. Whatever bad things you think you've done, I've done so much worse."

He looked at her a moment, still at loss for words. As he watched the snow pile up on her shoulders, line the creases in her plaited hair, land daintily on each eyelash, he felt something flicker in the center of his chest once more. Something that wasn't his temper.

_Now's the time to tell her._

**The waves were crashing.**

_But she'll never speak to you again!_

**The trees were bending.**

_She deserves to know._

**The sand was swirling.**

_You're a murderer, Jack._

**The hail was plummeting.**

_When are you going to tell her, Jack?_

**The storm was raging.**

_When?_

"There's something I have to tell you," he told her quietly, bowing his head.

Elsa raised her head, noting the sudden somberness of his voice. "What is it?"

"Elsa..." He took a deep breath, staring at the ground. "I did it."

She looked confused. "Did what?" Her eyes widened at the look on his face, and she suddenly looked fearful. "Jack, what did you do?"

A brief moment of silence passed, but to him it seemed to go on forever.

"The storm that killed your parents three years ago..." He closed his eyes. "It was me."

* * *

***Magoa** (Portuguese) - n. _A** heartbreaking feeling** that leaves **long-lasting** traces that are visible in** gestures**, **facial expressions**, and **general movements**_


	8. Alexithymia

Chapter 8. Alexithymia

* * *

**Elsa**

"It's all my fault."

She listened, with a strange kind of dazed numbness, to his words; The hasty explanation, the helpless and desperate tone, the voice that dripped with guilt and shame.

She didn't look _at_ him, but _through_ him, as a series of black dots sprinkled across her vision like pepper as his words seemed to form images in her eyes.

A calm day on the ocean. A small island in the middle of it. And Jack Frost, in the desperate effort to get away from the children he loved, falling onto it; Bringing with him a storm of severity that she couldn't even bring herself to imagine. The waves get restless. Then vicious. Then violent. It's too late when he realizes that on a nearby ship is the girl that gave him hope. Her mother. Crushed by his uncontrollable rage.

Once he had finished speaking, he looked down, but Elsa didn't move; She was paralyzed.

And she was fading.

Her father's face swam in front of her open eyes.

_You'll be fine, Elsa._

And her mother's.

_We'll be back before you have a chance to miss us, darling._

The pale, somber face of the messenger that had arrived at the gates.

_Princess Elsa, it is with genuine sorrow that I inform you that the king and queen's ship has sunk. There were... no survivors._

Diana and her useless knocking.

_Sweetheart, the funeral starts in ten minutes._

And then Anna.

_I'm right out here for you... Just let me in._

Her vision blurred as the memories, once repressed, came at her full force.

All that knocking, so much knocking, endless knocking; Everybody wondering where the royal orphan, the head of the family, the future queen was hiding, and why.

Jack was the reason why.

The numbness vanished in an instant along with her immobility, and the full reality of the situation hit her like a blizzard.

"_Oh!_"

It was a strangled part-gasp, part-whimper, part-cry, and it seemed to come from within her stomach and tear out of her throat, and more were coming; Pained, wounded sounds, and she covered her mouth with her gloved hand to muffle them as she fell to her knees, blinking furiously as the tears flooded her eyes.

"Elsa," Jack said in a hushed exclamation, kneeling beside her and dropping his staff as he hastened to place two hands on her shoulders in the effort to keep her from falling face-forward on the ice-hard ground.

_Don't touch me! _she wanted to shout at him, but she was sure she would be sick if she attempted to speak. Where her knees came in contact with the ground, tendrils of ice branched around her, crawling up the walls in jagged layers that sparkled ominously, sporadically erecting long thin spikes that glittered dangerously.

This was how she was forced to express her emotions.

She watched in horror as Jack's hands, placed firmly on either of her shoulders to keep her from falling, were covered in frost that rapidly snaked it's way up his arms, enough to give anybody else severe and permanent frostbite.

But he didn't even flinch.

"Elsa..." he said quietly, as though about to say _calm down _or _relax, _but thinking against it. He shook his head, and sighed. "I'm sorry."

Of course he was sorry; That was evident in everything he had told her just now. What bothered her most at that moment was the frost that was making it's way across his shoulders, around his throat, over his chest. Near his heart.

_The heart is not so easily changed._

"Jack, I'm going to hurt you!"

He stared at her confused. "What?" He looked down, and shook his head as though it was nothing but water. She watched with shock as he gave a few shrugs of his shoulders, and the tiny crystalline ice particles fell to the ground, as though he were shaking rain off of a coat. "Elsa, I promise you won't hurt me. We need to be worrying about y-"

"Just," She forced herself to sit straight, pushing herself away from him, "Just don't touch me right now. I need to..."

What did she need to do, exactly? Lie down? Scream? Both?

"...I need to breathe."

Her breathing was too fast and shallow, her nose numb and her head light, and her heart was thrumming like a hummingbird's wing beneath her hand. The ice cracked and thickened around her, the snow falling so thickly that she couldn't see the other side of the room.

She scooted backwards against the door, leaning back against the cold wood and inhaling deeply in the effort to get some air in her lungs, but it went in as a short pitched gasp. For multiple minutes, she worked on evening it out.

Jack watched her uncertainly, backing up, looking honestly unsure of what to do.

Did she want him to leave or stay? She herself didn't even know the answer to that question.

"Jack," she said, her voice weak and soft, and for a moment she planned on saying _You should leave, _but the words didn't come out. Instead, she said; "Are you sure I won't hurt you?"

Looking confused by this question but certain of the answer, he nodded.

She sighed, and, in a bold move even she wasn't aware she was capable of, she held out her hand.

_What are you doing? What are you doing?!_

Startled, he stepped forward and took it, sitting beside her against the door.

"Elsa, are you o-?"

"I don't know," she replied, her voice breathless as she started to recover from the hyperventilation that had so recently racked through her body like an earthquake. She looked down at his hand, which she now clutched tightly in both of hers. "I just..."

_My sister used to hold my hand when I got scared. So did Diana. So did my mother. So I just really need to do that right now, and you really shouldn't question it or I'll turn this entire palace into Antarctica. _

_By accident, of course.  
_

She still wore her gloves, and with fabric fingertips she traced the lines of his palm, wincing at the frost that clustered where she made contact, but he didn't seem to care. He watched, curious and amazed.

"I should be mad at you," she said quietly, when her breathing had calmed considerably, "But I'm not."

"You're not?"

"No."

Brief silence.

"Why?"

Elsa sighed. "I don't know."

But she did know.

As the silence lengthened, she continued to trace his palm, making swirling circular motions with her thumb and secretly relishing in the touching of another person.

"I hurt my sister," she said finally, flipping his hand over to examine the back, "When I was nine. She was only six, and it was an accident, and I had been scared, and..." She swallowed. "I could've killed her."

Jack nodded solemnly. "That's why you shut yourself away from her."

"That's why I shut myself away from_ everybody_."

"So it _was _for their protection..." He ducked his head, looking guilty for their argument earlier.

"Yes."

Silence.

Elsa closed her eyes, focusing on her swirled designs on his palm. "I've done bad things out of fear too, Jack."

A moment passed as she allowed these words to sink in.

He raised his head. "Elsa?"

"Yes?"

"I'm so sorry."

She opened her eyes and looked up at him, her breath habitually catching at having somebody so close to her.

Was he apologizing for what _he'd_ done or for what _she'd_ done?

His tone implied that he was sorry for a vast majority of things. It was such a melancholy tone for such a fun person.

She didn't like it.

Wordlessly, she leaned her head back against the door, before tilting it slightly to the side so that it was resting on his shoulder.

She was suddenly exhausted. Fatigue hit her harder than the panic attack that had caused it, and her eyelids felt like they had weights tied to the bottoms of them. Slowly, almost cautiously, she entwined her fingers with his own, before closing her eyes and allowing herself to drift.

She wanted him to still be there when she woke up, but she couldn't summon the strength or courage to tell him that.

There, in a frozen room within the regal castle that sat in the center of Arendelle, sitting against the door and clutching the hand of a conflicted Winter spirit, a mere two days away from her coronation day...

The future-queen of Arendelle fell asleep.

* * *

***Alexithymia** (English medical term) - n. _The **struggle** or **inability** to express one's emotions** verbally**; To be unable to express what you feel through **spoken words**_


	9. Redamancy

Chapter 9. Redamancy

* * *

**Jack**

"_You did a very brave thing, Jack."_

He sighed at the Wind's words, looking through the closed window at Elsa, who was now lying in her bed beneath the covers.

It had been surprisingly easy to carry her from the door to the bed; She was very light, and he had barely stumbled. After she was tucked in, he had retrieved his staff from the ground and hopped out her window, sitting on the roof outside to think.

"She doesn't hate me," he mumbled with a gloomy shrug, "But that doesn't mean she isn't sad."

"_She will recover. She is very fond of you."_

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right."

"_Rather than being sarcastic and cryptic, why don't you take a look at your hand?"_

Already knowing what the Wind was talking about, he sighed, and raised his hand to his face, examining the swirling pattern of ice that marked his palm; It was there because Elsa had fallen asleep with her hand pressed against his.

Something in his stomach fluttered and stirred, but he shook his head quickly.

"That doesn't mean anything."

"_On the contrary; It means quite a bit more than you'd think."_

He didn't respond. The sun had just set, and he gazed thoughtfully at the shimmering green waves that had taken it's place, floating peacefully in the sky; The Northern Lights. They were comforting, reminding him of Antarctica, and he leaned his head back against the shingles of the roof and allowed himself to drift away from his thoughts and into a troubled sleep.

* * *

"Hey!"

He started awake, and turned in the direction of the voice.

Was he still dreaming? How could a person be all the way up here? And so late at night?

After a few seconds of looking around, he looked straight down and saw a balcony directly beneath the roof he sat on, and standing on it was a strawberry-blonde who grinned up at him. "Hey, you!"

Jack blinked, startled. "Anna?"

"What are doing up there?" she called, before shaking her head dismissively, "Hang on, I'll be right up!"

He watched as she snatched a plank of wood that hung off the railing of the balcony she stood on. It had rope attached to either end of it, like some kind of swing, which connected to a rooftop far above him.

It was a window-washer's pulley.

She stepped onto it and pulled a rope that dangled beside it, pulling herself up with surprising strength before hopping onto the roof beside him, teetering on the edge of it for a moment before sitting next to him.

Jack stared at her, blinking in surprise. "What- How- Why are you still awake?"

"Pfft." She rolled her eyes, as though the answer was obvious. "Because the _sky _is awake. Duh. Look!" She pointed at the auroras above them, before looking back at him. "Why are _you _still awake?"

"Um..." He looked back through the window, running his hand through his hair, and she followed his gaze, "I was just..."

Anna smirked. "Oh. I see."

"What?" He turned sharply to look at her, feeling a little uncomfortable about her smug tone of voice. "You see what?"

"Nothing, nothing," she replied with false innocence, before looking back up at the sky.

She seemed to be searching for something.

When she was sitting this close beside him, Jack could easily see the streak of white in her strawberry curls.

_I've done bad things out of fear too, Jack._

"You know, it's not very princess-y to stay up till midnight," he told her smugly, faking a smile and also wanting to get back at her for making false assumptions, "The auroras aren't _that_ interesting..."

Anna looked offended, and she rolled her eyes. "First of all: They're awesome and you need to stop." She huffed and crossed her arms. "Second of all," she continued, her face changing into a cheerful smile, "They're not the _only _reason I stay up so late. Something _way _more interesting happens at this time of night. Wait a few minutes and you'll see."

He thought she was crazy, but he did as she said, and watched the sky with her; His curiosity got the best of him. However, after ten straight minutes of silence and waiting, Jack grew impatient.

"What exactly are we-?"

"Shh!" she exclaimed, covering his mouth firmly with her hand and muffling his outraged protests. A brief second went by, and she then pointed at the sky.

"Look."

He threw her an agitated glare, before turning his head and looking in the direction she pointed to.

What he saw made his eyes widen, and Anna pulled her hand away, looking pleased with his reaction.

The inky blackness of the sky and the soft hues of the auroras were broken up suddenly by a dozen thick tendrils of glittering gold that branched through the air like a web, spiraling around the turrets and towers of the castle and streaming through windows with a gentle grace.

Jack stood up quickly, moving out of the way of an individual ribbon of gold that darted towards him and shot through Elsa's window, gliding straight through the glass like sunlight.

"What... what is it?" Jack asked breathlessly, looking up at Anna in shock.

She stood across from him, grinning radiantly at the golden strands that swirled around her, lighting up her face. "It's sand!"

"Sand?" he repeated, peering through the window, where the rope of shimmering stuff spiraled above Elsa's head like some kind of cloud, before it slowly took the form of a golden snowman that bounced happily around her pillow. "Is it safe to touch?"

"No way," Anna laughed, "Not with your skin, anyways. I touched it once and passed out where I stood. But I bet your stick thingie can touch it."

Jack considered this for a moment before he was simply too curious to refuse. Cautiously, he poked the thick trail of sand with the end of his staff, and watched in amazement as several shooting stars burst out of the glittering grains, all seeming to be made from the same stuff.

"Where does it come from?" he asked, looking back up at the sky and attempting to follow one of the trails with his eyes, but they were all tangled together like hair and he couldn't tell them apart, "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Maybe you haven't been paying attention," Anna giggled, watching the sandy shooting stars with glee, "It happens every night. Mother used to read me this story called _Ole Lukøje_, about a little man who used to throw gold dust in people's eyes while they slept, and I believe that's where this sand is coming from. They call him the Sandman, and he brings good dreams."

Jack thought about this, a little skeptical. "You_ really_ believe that?"

"Well, of course I do. Don't you?"

He looked at her a moment. Her eyes were bright with adoration as she talked about this storybook character; It was very obvious that she absolutely and truly believed in the "Sandman."

He found himself wishing to be thought of that way; _Believed in._

"If he brings dreams," Jack said thoughtfully, looking back at the ropes of glowing sand, "does that mean he brings nightmares, too?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't believe he would ever try to make us afraid."

"Well if _he_ doesn't, then who-"

"_Jack,"_ the Wind cautioned, _"__It's best not to ask anymore questions."_

He scoffed. "Wait, do _you _know about this?" he asked in a whisper that the distracted Anna could not hear, "Why didn't you ever tell me there was some little guy that had weird magic sand-"

"_Now's not the time, Jack."_

"But I've never seen or heard of anything like this!"

"_It was only a matter of time."_

"Are you hiding something from me?"

"_Jack, please, just-"_

"Tell me!"

There was a sudden _bump_, and Jack turned to see Anna laying on her side on the shingles, her eyes closed and a small smile plastered on her face as a circle of golden hearts circled lazily over her head.

She had accidentally touched the sand.

He rolled his eyes with a grin before waving his staff, summoning the Wind to gently lift her off of the roof (What would everybody think if they found the princess asleep on a roof?) and instructing It to take her to her room.

"Alright," Jack said sternly, crossing his arms and glaring once Anna was gone, "What aren't you telling me?"

"_That is unimportant."_

"Who is this 'Sandman'?"

"_Please tell me you don't believe the princess' story."_

"I do. Because it's not a story, and you know it."

"_Jack-"_

"Why am I _never _allowed to get an answer?" he shouted, feeling his cheeks go hot with his anger, "Why can't I just _know?"_

The leaves of trees below started to shake as a sudden gust of wind blew by, strangely chilly for Summer weather.

"_Jack, remember your temper."  
_

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he insisted, gritting his teeth and pinching the bridge of his nose. After a moment, the wind stopped abruptly, and he took a deep breath. "Just tell me. Please."

There was a moment of silence while the Wind hesitated.

"_The Sandman... is more than just a mere fairytale."_

"What is he then?"

"_He is a Guardian. Chosen by the Moon."_

When the Wind's words hit him, it felt like being submerged into a mass of freezing water. Which he had experienced before.

"The Moon?" he repeated, looking up at the silver half-circle that glowed brightly alongside the sand tendrils and auroras. "The Moon gave somebody else a gift?"

"_Not just one. There are many like you, but there are four that are most important. They are the Guardians."_

"Most important..." Jack murmured, looking down at himself as a frightening thought occurred to him, "But if they're the Guardians, what about the rest of us? What are we? What am... I?"

No response.

The Wind drifted away without another word, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts and the sand that was starting to fade.

And the Moon.

He stared up at it, his heart thumping rapidly, because he was closer to the truth than he had ever been in his entire life; The truth of _why._

"What am I?" he repeated quietly to the Moon, his eyes taking on a pained expression, "And what are _they? _And what do they have that I don't? Why do they get answers? Why do they get to know the truth?"

So many questions, and yet the Moon was as still and silent as ever.

He felt his anger rise.

"Control your temper," he muttered to himself under his breath, forcing himself to bottle up the storm inside that longed to explode.

The heat in his chest gradually ebbed, replaced by a numb sort of emptiness.

He sighed and turned back to the window.

The last of the golden tendrils had vanished, but Elsa's dreams were still fully visible above her head.

Curious, he inched closer to the window, his nose centimeters from the glass as he watched the glittering grains take the shape of something that he couldn't quite make out.

He squinted through the darkness, before he finally saw what it was that stood swirling around her head in gold sand; It was his silhouette.

She was dreaming about him.

* * *

***Redamancy **(English) - n. _The act of **feeling love** towards one who **loves you in return**_


	10. Forelsket

Chapter 10. Forelsket

* * *

**Elsa**

As she always was when she woke up the morning after a panic attack, Elsa was bleary and aching, her eyes burning from dried tears and her head throbbing with a dull pain.

But something about this morning was different.

For one, she wasn't woken with a start by someone knocking on her door. She woke slowly, naturally coming to consciousness in a rather pleasant and serene way, her eyelids fluttering dazedly before she sat up and stretched, the early-morning sun spilling a soft pale gold across her face.

She had never woken up this early on her own.

Another odd thing was that she was warm, and comfortable. She realized that she rarely woke in her bed; She usually fell asleep on the cold floor after one of her tantrums, too weak and shaky to summon the strength to even stand.

Actually, she recalled having fallen asleep on the floor last night as well. How had she gotten up here?

_Jack._

She looked around her room, wincing as her eyes fell upon the spikes that lined the walls and ceiling, before she looked at her window and saw that it was open, letting in a breeze that was a tad colder than the already-chilly Norwegian mountain air. The scent of it made her breath catch in her throat, and she inhaled deeply; She wished she could remember what it was like to be outside, but those memories were all repressed, except the one that had occurred a mere day before.

When she had flown on the wind.

She had a mere moment to wonder where Jack had gone before a noise interrupted her thoughts.

_Tap tap tap._

"My lady?"

Unaware that she was smiling slightly, she turned to her door. "Yes?"

There was silence, and Elsa could picture Diana standing on the other side of the thick wood with a gape of shock on her face.

Because Elsa had never actually _answered _her before.

"Uh..." Diana replied, her muffled voice a little cautious and confused, "You have a, um, another rehearsal this morning, and, er, someotherstuffand..."

She trailed off in an unintelligible mumble that made Elsa bite back a laugh. "I'll be right out!" she called, hopping out of bed (Did the future-queen-of-Arendelle just _hop?!)_ before making her way to her wardrobe, "I just need to dress."

More stunned silence.

"You... by yourself? Really?" Even though she did her best to conceal it, the excitement was evident in Diana's voice, and it made Elsa grin. (Did the future-queen-of-Arendelle just _grin?!)_

Ever since Elsa was sixteen, she was so depressed in the mornings that she couldn't even summon the strength to dress herself. Today wasn't any different than any other; And yet somehow, it wasn't the same either. She walked over to her wardrobe.

"How, um..." Diana called quietly as Elsa threw the doors of the wardrobe open, "How are you feeling this morning, Elsa?"

The corner of Elsa's mouth quirked as she examined the row of gowns, and she answered as best as she could.

"Warm."

* * *

"Will you just _tell me_ who he is already?"

Elsa fought the urge to roll her eyes (Which she learned is a very un-queenly thing to do) as she walked down the hall with her very curious head maid.

"There is no _he,_" she repeated for the hundredth time, though her flushed cheeks gave her away, "I'm just... feeling unexpectedly confident about my coronation, is all."

Diana gave her a critical look. "Oh, what a load of-"

"Alright, alright," Elsa sighed, cutting off her maid, who could get incredibly vulgar if she felt to, "I'll tell you... some things." She was already preparing a bunch of lies about some imaginary prince in some made-up distant country.

Diana stopped in her walking, her hands balled into excited fists beneath her chin and an eager grin on her face; The elderly woman looks like a teenager awaiting some gossip.

Elsa stopped walking as well, and fought the urge to laugh. "Well..." she murmured, fidgeting with her gloves (They were red today, like her gown; The polar opposite of her.) "He's... well, he's... kind."

Diana rolled her eyes. "Quit turning this moment of fun into complete boredom, sweetie. I need _details_, because I need to make sure he is worthy of the one who I've come to think of as the daughter I never had, and if he _isn't, _I _will_ find a way to have him and possibly his family destroyed."

Elsa was touched by such maternal (and slightly frightening) words. "Wait, _'daughter I've never had?'_ Isn't your daughter one of the maids here? Mildred, or Mable, I think?"

"It's Mable, but that is irrelevant. Continue."

Elsa sighed in defeat. "Alright." There was so much to tell, so many traits that she secretly adored about Jack Frost, but they all came at her like bullets, and she had to select one to start with.

"He loves children."

Diana looked immensely satisfied with this piece of information. "Yes?"

"Oh yes," Elsa replied, nodding as she remembered the look on Jack's face at the mere mention of children, "His face, it just..." She gestured to her own, making an outward motion with both of her hands. "It just _lights up._ As though he lives for nothing else. As though they make him whole."

Her maid smiled at this. "Your eyes are getting a little foggy, Elsa."

"They are _not!"_

"Are too."

Elsa pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers; Not so much because she was irritated, but because she needed an excuse to hide her darkening cheeks and her possibly-fogging eyes.

But Diana wasn't finished yet. "Is he _handsome?_" she asked with a comical smirk, her voice drawn out on that last word.

This time, there was no way to hide her pink cheeks. "He has a... boyish charm to him," she mumbled, staring at the ground. She didn't want to talk about his eyes or his smile, because, oh, how carried away she would get! "He's constantly grinning, and his hair is this strange white color, and he's-"

"Wait, wait," Diana interrupted, "I respect all of your choices, My Lady, but _white hair?_ How old is this man exactly? Because I'd hate to see you run off with some eighty-year-old geezer that croaks the very next day."

It took all of Elsa's will not to laugh out loud, mainly because Jack technically _was _in his eighties, and that should've irked her. But it didn't.

"He's actually a year or two younger than me," Elsa told her, basing this on Jack's boyish looks. "He's a trouble-maker, and frankly he irritates me." _A lot._ "And he's an explorer. He's seen the beauty of the world, Diana." She smiled, still looking at the ground. "But the world hasn't seen the beauty of him yet."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"So, let me sum this up a bit," Diana said, counting these traits on her fingers, "He's a smiling... people-loving... mischievous... teenage... explorer." She shook her head, grinning. "It's like the sun and moon."

They _were_ very different. Elsa knew that.

But she also knew that, despite the fact that he had been born from the Moon, Jack was the undoubtedly the _sun_; Radiant and grinning and annoyingly blinding at times. He helped people. He made them smile. He made them feel warm.

But she was the moon, because she was small and hard and cold. A part of her would always be hidden away.

"Does this boy have _any _flaws?" Diana asked with a laugh, mistaking Elsa's silence for dreamy thinking, "You make him sound perfect."

Elsa's face fell a little. "He's not," she said quietly, "He... has a very dark past."

Diana waved her hand dismissively. "We all do, darling. It's not like he killed anybody, right?."

Elsa's breath caught in her throat sharply, but she bit her lip and nodded. "O-of course not."

The princess and the maid started walking again, and neither of them saw or were even aware of the tall dark shadow of a man that stood a mere ten feet behind them, listening to their conversation thoughtfully, his face hidden in darkness despite the sunlight that streamed through the windows that lined the walls.

A sideways crescent of white appeared on the face of this dark figure, and he disappeared into the ground with startling grace.

He had nearly all the information he needed.

* * *

"_...Queen Elsa of Arendelle."_

Elsa practically threw the apple and candlestick back onto the pillow, rushing to get them away from her skin, which was clothed and yet still emitting anxious ice.

"Alright," the monotonous servant muttered, his half-lidded eyes oblivious to everything as he set the pillow aside, "Now to rehearse the celebration. Yay."

Elsa blinked. "Excuse me? I thought-"

"After the ceremony," Diana cut in, stepping forward without her rights and causing the other maids and servants to gasp, "There is the celebration, remember? You will be introduced alongside your sister, and then you will smile, and then you will be asked to dance by multiple men dressed in frilly stockings and ostentatious collars."

Practically the entire room gasped at such disrespectful words, but Diana snorted with indifference. "Don't you dare try to deny it, either. I've yet to see an attractive man at one of these things."

"I don't dance," Elsa said quickly, "Can't I make- I mean, I'm going to make an exception. I'm sure my sister will be a swell enough dancer for the both of us."

"Your sister can't even show up for a lousy rehearsal," the servant-playing-the-bishop yawned, "How do you expect her to-"

"I must respectfully demand you not talk bad about Princess Anna," Elsa interrupted, a little sharper than she meant as she turned to the servant with a bit of irritation flashing is her eyes.

The servant was unfazed, and he shrugged. "Whatever."

"_I_ think," Diana cut in, walking up the steps of the platform (a sharp intake of breath from the maids marked each stairstep she took) "We should work on that smile. Go on, Elsa. Show me."

"I think," one of the braver maids piped up, "It's a bit disrespectful of you, Diana, to refer to Her Highness by her first name in such an informal matter. Don't you think you're a bit out of line?"

Diana rolled her eyes. "Bite me," she snapped, and turned back to Elsa, her eyes softening. "Go on sweetie."

Feeling ridiculous, Elsa attempted a proper close-lipped smile, and Diana shook her head. "Smile _brightly, _dear, not politely."

Elsa tried again.

"No, show your teeth."

Taking this bit of advice, she tried yet again.

"Look like you _mean _it!"

Elsa sighed exasperatedly, and was about to try again, when something behind Diana caught her eye.

It was Jack.

He sat in one of the front pews, his hands folded behind his head and his feet propped up on the back of the seat in front of him. Grinning, he gave her a wink.

She smiled back at him.

"That's it!" Diana exclaimed, beaming at Elsa, who forgot that Diana was even there, "Smile just like that! You look lovely!"

There were murmurs from the servants; None of them had ever seen the poised and reserved eldest princess smile in such a bright way, making the cold and bitter girl look absolutely beautiful; As beautiful as her brighter younger sister whom everybody adored.

Startled, Elsa reached up and brushed her own lips with her fingertips. The corners of her mouth _were_ curved and her teeth _were _visible.

How strange.

"Are we quite finished yet?" she asked politely, turning to the bored servant, "I should like to prepare myself with what is to come."

The servant gave a distasteful sigh. "You have a few papers to sign regarding some trading with the kingdoms of Benesia and Weaseltown-"

"Isn't it 'Weselton?'" one of the maids corrected.

"I heard the duke's a total weirdo," another one whispered.

"Whatever," the servant said in a dull deadpan, giving yet another sigh, "And then you have some last-minute invitations to sign and send to the kingdoms of Torlence, Corona, and the Southern Isles." He paused. "After that, you should be free for the rest of the day. Hooray."

Elsa, who had hardly heard any of this, tore her eyes from Jack (who was now confusing one of the maids by tossing marbles from a vase at her) and turned back to the servant, clearing her throat with a smile. "Thank you."

"_Who_ is doing that?" the maid shrieked, looking around furiously and bending down to pick up three small iridescent marbles, "They're coming from the center of the room, and I just don't- Ah! There's another one! Didn't anybody see that?!"

Just as this maid was on the verge of hysterics, Elsa stepped off of the stage, nearly biting a gash into her bottom lip in the effort to keep from laughing. "That was very inappropriate," she whispered as Jack walked up to her, self-satisfaction evident in his smile, "That poor woman is probably scarred for life now."

"Then why are you trying not to laugh?" Jack replied smugly as they exited the room, "Come on, it's not like she'll have an irrational phobia of marbles..." He tossed another marble behind his shoulder, grinning wider at the squeals that followed. "It'll be completely rational."

This time, out of view of the servants, Elsa allowed herself to abandon her poised posture and throw her head back and laugh.

* * *

At some point that day, the princess and the spirit had shared a mutual understanding to never discuss the events of the night before. The dark confession, the hysterical sobs, and the unexpected showing of affection; Holding hands.

To many, this act of innocent intimacy is nothing compared to hugs or kisses, but to the two souls who had gone years without physical contact, it was more than either could comprehend. The swirling pattern of ice that Elsa had subconsciously doodled in the attempt to calm herself was left unmentioned on Jack's hand, never to be spoken of again.

Meanwhile, the source of the majority of Jack's angst and self-loathing now drifted in Elsa's mind, unhidden and free to be thought of and pored over; He had killed her parents.

It seemed neither had any secrets anymore, and that was a bittersweet fact.

Jack knew of Elsa's juvenile attempts of self-harm with fire, and the incident with Anna's frozen head.

Elsa knew of Jack's birth from the ice and Moon, and the Big Mistake He Would Always Regret And Never Forget.

They were both broken by their pasts, and, even though they denied themselves the thought or even the possibility of it, they were the keys in putting each other back together.

They just had to understand that.

Despite the obvious similarities of Winter powers, they _were _the sun and moon. One was gifted and the other was cursed. One longed to be seen and the other longed to be invisible. One was playful and the other was poised.

But the sparks were there, and they both knew that, and even though neither one knew _when _exactly they had started, it was Jack who felt them first.

On the mountain on that first night, he had seen the extraordinary happiness that such a depressed princess was capable of when she had built that snowman. He had felt the sparks, and they had lit up his frozen heart like a firework.

For Elsa, it had been a little later, though she would never admit it even to herself. It had been when she had held his hand. It had been during her most vulnerable moment, and perhaps during his too. It had been when she had nearly fallen asleep on his shoulder and he had lifted her, still awake but keeping her eyes closed, from the ground and carried her to her bed, stumbling slightly beneath her weight and looking amazed that his skin didn't go right through hers.

The sparks she felt then had been strong, but, like everything else, she had forced herself not to feel them, concealing them from herself in the depths of her soul.

For once in her life, though, she wasn't afraid of hurting him.

She was afraid of getting hurt.

But even though the sparks were hidden, they were there, and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

The night after that second coronation rehearsal, they had both sat on the floor of the room and made things of ice. Or, more like, Jack made snowflakes and sculptures while Elsa watched with interest. She didn't trust herself to try to mimic these things of beauty, because she still believed she could make only dangerous products of fear.

The following day, Elsa woke warm again to find herself in her bed once more and Jack gone. She had gone to her third rehearsal, which was more uptight than the others because it was the last one, and this time the apple and candlestick were completely frosted over.

Afterward, Diana had given her a reassuring hug (which was rather awkward with the thick stiff Winter suit she had to wear) and then Elsa had gone straight to her room and right to Jack, who was waiting for her.

* * *

"You nervous?" he asked her that night, his mouth smirking but his eyes serious.

Swallowing, she nodded. The following morning was going to be dreadful.

The gates were going to be opened.

Jack and Elsa both laid on their stomachs across from each other on the floor in front of the flickering fireplace. Jack had made tiny sculptures of Diana and Anna and even the bored servant, and they were starting to melt in the heat of the nearby fire.

"Hey," he told her, looking up at Elsa over the ice figures, "I'll be in there with you during the entire ceremony. I'll even stand right next to you. It's not like anybody but Anna can see me anyways."

"Really?" Elsa replied, a relieved breath escaping her lips, "That would make it so much easier if you would. Would you?"

Jack grinned. "You couldn't pay me not to."

* * *

Hours later, when the sun had nearly risen, Diana had come into the room to wake Elsa and found not only the princess sleeping peacefully on the ground before a dying fire, but a boy curled up beside her, their fingers intertwined and their foreheads nearly touching.

Diana could see Jack.

Despite the fact that the princess and the boy were both fully-clothed and in a completely innocent position, Diana had gasped and dropped the tray of food she held, the sound of glass shattering against ice echoing off the frozen walls.

"What is _this?!_"

* * *

*******Forelsket** (Norwegian) - n. _Literally translates as _"**pre-love**"_. The ineffable _**_euphoria_**_ you feel when you are _**_first_**_ falling in love; "_**_Having a Crush On Somebody_**_" _


	11. Kilig

Chapter 11. Kilig

* * *

**Jack**

When the exclamation rang through the bedroom, ricocheting off of the frozen walls and piercing his ears with it's alarm, Jack awoke and bolted upright, looking straight up at a pair of startled grey eyes.

Eyes that stared _right back at him!_

"What is this?" the maid repeated, much quieter than the first time.

Unsure what to do, Jack turned to Elsa, who had sat up beside him with equal haste.

"Jack, I think she can see-"

"My lady," the woman interrupted in a voice that was no longer surprised but was now venomously soft, directing her attention to Elsa, who shrank back in fear despite the fact that she was nearly a foot taller than the tiny maid. "There is a boy in your room."

It wasn't a question; It was a statement seeking a confirmation.

Jack hurried to defend Elsa, getting to his feet and quickly swallowing the wave of shock and the flash of excitement that appeared from yet another person being able to see him. "Wait, I can expla-"

"I'll get to you in a moment, boy," the maid snapped, glaring daggers at him before turning back to Elsa, who stood up as well, and repeating herself. "There is a boy in your room."

Elsa hesitated, before looking down. "Yes, Diana."

The maid nodded. "Perhaps he has been here all night?"

Elsa bit her lip. "Yes."

More nodding. "Perhaps he was here the night before?"

Deep breath. "Y-yes..."

There was a brief pause, in which the maid's sharp eyes flicked back and forth between the two guilty faces that stared at the ground.

Anticipation swarmed in Jack's mind, and he was worried for Elsa. Surely the queen-in-the-making wouldn't be punished on her own coronation day...

Right?

It was completely unexpected when the old woman's round wrinkled face suddenly broke into a radiant smile, her stormy grey eyes lighting like stars as she clasped her gloved hands together joyously.

"Oh _rapture_!"

Jack and Elsa blinked, alarmed at her sudden glee. "What?"

Jack yelped in shock when Diana suddenly lunged forward, clapping her hands over either of his cheeks and pulling him over to her, turning his head from side to side as she examined his face closely.

She had the strength of a dozen men, and yet her hands were almost as maternal as a grandmother's as she pulled and prodded at his cheeks and forehead and eyelids.

"He's too pale," she muttered under her breath while he struggled uselessly, "but he has a nice strong jaw. Oh, and those eyes!" She grinned, turning to Elsa while still painfully clutching his face. "Darling, he's perfect!"

"Excuse me, lady," Jack said loudly through forced pursed lips, pulling at either of her thin sturdy wrists in the useless attempt to pry her hands from his cheeks, "You're squeezing my face!"

She let out a chuckle and released him unexpectedly, so that he fell backwards onto the ground beside Elsa, who was now blushing furiously and trying not to laugh.

"So... you're not mad?" he clarified, retrieving his staff off of the ground and getting to his feet, rubbing his sore jaw.

Diana's eyebrows rose, but her smile hardly faded. "Mad?" she repeated, "I'm _furiou_s!" She paused. "And it's _great_!"

Jack stared, flummoxed. "Uh... huh?"

"This is _amazing_, Elsa!" Diana exclaimed in an excited squeal, "I hadn't seen you smile so grandly in _years,_ and then last week you _changed_..." She turned to Jack, clapping both hands onto his shoulders. "And it's because of _you._" She paused, smiling breathlessly and resembling a child. "You will be attending the ceremony this morning, I trust?"

Despite his bewilderment at Diana's odd and unexpected turn of feelings about the future-queen of Arendelle having a boy in her room, Jack nodded, turning to look at Elsa. "Um... yeah. I will."

Elsa gave him a small smile that was laced with clashing excitement and anxiety.

Diana was practically hopping. "Oh, this is so _great_!" she exclaimed, before pausing and looking him up and down, "Of course, you'll have to change; Even the commoners won't be wearing clothes like that. And then we'll have to assign you a seat in one of the front pews, and-"

While Jack listened to this blankly, having no idea how to refuse, Elsa came to his rescue.

"That's quite unnecessary," she told the excited maid hastily but politely, "You see, Jack is not from around here, he, um... He can just stand to the side. Up on the platform." She took a deep breath. "Beside me."

Diana's face fell. "Oh sweetie, that would never be allowed," she replied, shaking her head sadly, "You know how things are. He's a peasant boy, they'd never-"

"On the contrary," Elsa interrupted, stepping sideways and taking Jack's arm in hers (Causing him to start in shock at her unexpected touch) "Today, I am queen. What I say goes." She paused, lifting her chin in a regal way. "And, for your information, Jack is far more than a peasant boy."

Jack stared, eyes and mouth wide open.

Diana beamed. "I have never seen you like this before!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in a rejoiceful way, "It's about time you take a stand! Alright, I'll be right back, I need to go fetch you some tea and your dress." She paused in the doorway, looking at Jack pointedly. "I mean it. I'll be _right _back. Don't try anything funny."

And she disappeared down the hall.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence and stillness where Jack was very aware of Elsa still holding his arm. They both exchanged a look, before chuckling nervously and stepping away from each other.

"Well, um," Elsa mumbled, brushing a stray lock of hair back into place, "Today's... today's the day."

"Yup," Jack said quietly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "So, uh, I guess Diana can see me now."

He was still a bit surprised at Elsa's words earlier, after insisting that he stay on stage with her. Yes, with his invisibility, immortality, and Winter powers, he was obviously more than a peasant boy. But the way she said it, it was as though she meant it in a completely different way.

As though he actually mattered.

She nodded. "Yes, apparently she can. It's so strange. I mean, with me and Anna being able to see you since the beginning, and then Diana... You don't suppose the Moon is controlling who can see you?"

Jack opened his mouth, before snapping it shut. This thought had never occurred to him. _Could_ the Moon decide who he was visible to?

No. No, It couldn't. It had ignored him for decades, but It would never tease him in such a cruel way.

Something had happened sometime between Elsa's coronation rehearsal yesterday and this morning. Something somehow had altered Diana's vision and made her able to see him.

But what?

Then the other big questions, the questions that had been bothering him more and more the past few days, flooded into his mind like a furious hurricane in that moment.

_Why could Elsa and Anna see him?_

_Why did Elsa have powers?_

_Why wouldn't the Moon tell him anything?_

_Who else had the Moon chosen besides the "Sandman" that Anna and the Wind had told him about?_

_What did these chosen people, called "Guardians," have that Jack did not?_

_What made Jack different from any of them?_

_And why was Jack different from the other humans?_

_Why was he invisible?_

_Why did he have powers?_

Then there was the biggest question of all.

_Why?_

And there was that voice, the one he had heard on the night he had met Elsa and brought her to the North Mountain, the one who showed Jack all of those illusions and flashbacks... Who had that been?

This sudden onslaught of scrambled thoughts made his head throb, and he winced, pressing his fingertips to his temple and leaning against his staff to support his sudden wooziness.

"Jack?"

He looked up, and saw Elsa watching him with concern.

"Are you alright?" she asked, stepping forward and reaching out helplessly, not touching him, "What are you thinking about?"

Jack sighed, not knowing where to begin. "I..." He shook his head, deciding it'd be best to change the subject. "It doesn't matter. Are _you _alright, Elsa? You look..."

She looked scared. She fidgeted with her gloved hands and bit her lip and kept glancing out the window, where the sun was slowly making it's way up the sky.

The ceremony would be starting soon.

"I look nervous, I know," she finished for him, running her hands through her hair and turning away, "I have reason enough, don't I? I _have_ to get this in control. Look!" She held out her hands in distress, where bits of ice lined the white fabric of her fingers, before she yanked the gloves off and tossed them away in disgust. She turned back around to face him. "I have to stop... _feeling_!" she exclaimed, her voice raising as she waved her hands furiously to express her words, "Those people are expecting a show! I have to hide it, I have to get it in control, and if I make _one wrong move, _everyone will-"

Without fully thinking about it, Jack set his staff against the wall and reached out, catching both of her sleeves in his hands and holding her still.

Elsa's gasp resounded off of the glittering ice walls, and they stared at each other blankly for a moment.

Blue eyes, nearly matching in color, were mere inches apart and wide in alarm.

"Jack?" she breathed, startled.

He blinked, his eyes immediately darting to the floor. "You, uh..." he began in a stammering mumble, his cheeks burning, "Y-you won't mess up. I'll be right up there next to you, and all you have to do is... make it through for a couple hours. It's only for today."

He forced himself to look back up and meet her gaze, completely unaware of the ice that started up both his arms from clutching either of her wrists.

She looked back at him, her breath catching in her throat. "Jack," she repeated, "I-"

"Remember when I said _'don't try anything funny'_?!" a stern voice snapped from the doorway, interrupting her, "_This _is what I meant!"

They both jumped, and Jack realized how close they were; At some point he had pulled both of her hands towards him, causing both of them to step forward and get a little closer than was considered appropriate...

"Hey, watch it!" he exclaimed as an unexpectedly strong hand grabbed the scruff of his collar and yanked him away.

"Excuse me, young man," Diana snapped, still gripping the back of his shirt as she handed Elsa a cup of tea, "_You _are the one who should 'watch it.'" She released him, grinning at his angry protests, and turned to Elsa. "My lady, it's time to get ready," she said kindly, before looking back at Jack with a smirk. "And _you_ too."

Jack's eyebrows rose. "Excuse me?"

* * *

"See?" Anna said, smiling smugly and placing her hands on her hips, "I _told _you blue is his color."

Jack gave an exasperated sigh, crossing his arms and glaring at the mirror in front of him. "What's the point of this?"

He was in one of the dressing rooms, where for twenty minutes Diana and a recently woken Princess Anna had argued over what to force the unwilling Winter spirit into. They had finally decided on a simple dress shirt, dark blue in color and made of stiff cotton with long cuff sleeves and gold buttons that clasped all the way to the hollow of his throat. The sleeves, collar, and tailcoat were all sharp and dignified.

The exact opposite of who he was.

"Don't brood, it's bad for your complexion," Diana snapped, thunking him on the head with a wooden ruler before turning back to the chest she had been rifling through. Still unaware of his secret, which Anna had kept with a promise, Diana still thought he was an average human commoner. "Now, as for shoes-"

"Are you kidding me?" he groaned, rubbing the spot she had hit with the ruler and turning away, shaking his head in refusal, "No, no, there is _no way-_"

"Psst," Anna whispered, elbowing him in the ribs, "When the ceremony's over, you can just chuck 'em off the nearest balcony. I won't tell a soul."

Jack crossed his arms, grumbling incoherently under his breath, but nodded to show he was grateful.

"So, _Jack,_" Diana said, turning to him and brushing off her apron, before moving to another trunk and rummaging through it, "Tell me about yourself."

"Er... what?"

Diana gave a laugh. "You have earned the affections of the royal heir of Arendelle," she told him, "You can't expect me not to ask you of your background. Family, home, career... Who are you exactly?"

"Um..." He and Anna exchanged looks, and the princess gave him an unsure shrug. "Well, I uh... I'm not really anybody. I'm not from around here, and I'm kind of... kind of on my own, I guess?"

Diana turned back to him, raising her eyebrows. "Oh?" she asked, surprised, "No parents? No siblings?"

Scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, he shook his head.

Her eyes visibly softened. "Oh, um," she murmured, clearing her throat, "Well... I, uh, I'm very sorry to hear about that."

"Don't be," he said quickly. He definitely didn't want to be pitied; He believed himself to be stronger than that. "I'm fine now. Seriously. Elsa is helping me. A lot."

She smiled, her pale eyes lighting up, before stating matter-of-factly; "You're helping her too, y'know."

* * *

He walked quickly down the hall, scowling at the soft muffled _tap tap _sound his feet made on the carpeted floor.

Jack hated shoes.

Despite the weighed-down sensation he felt by these simple black monstrosities, he walked faster, eager to find the library before the bells ring.

He eventually found a long hallway, lined with waiting servants, ending with a pair of doors that were open ajar. He slipped into the room, and found that it was small, a personal library for one. Sitting against the far wall was a long table with a large painting hung above it, and on the other side of the room was a small triangular window that gleamed in the now-risen sun.

That's where Elsa stood, her back to him, gazing fretfully outside.

Jack came up behind her, looking out the window alongside her. The morning was clear and bright, perfect for a celebration. In the near distance, a dozen ships sailed on the opaque blue water along the fjords, their sails billowing in the Summery wind. Down below were the gates, surrounded by a crowd of people waiting for them to be open, and a small green dot prancing about the castle gardens was Anna, obviously celebrating.

Elsa was whispering under her breath, and Jack didn't have to hear her to know what she was saying.

_Conceal. Don't feel. Don't let it show._

"It'll be okay," he told her quietly, though he wasn't sure himself.

He just didn't want to hear her say those words anymore.

She sighed, and turned to look at him, before her eyes widened. "Jack," she said in surprise, the corner of her mouth turning up as she took a step back to fully see him, "Look at you."

"I'd actually prefer not to, thanks," he muttered with a shudder, holding his staff over his shoulder.

"You're wearing shoes," she remarked, her voice laced with concealed laughter as she brought her hand to her mouth to hide her grin. He sighed irritably, and she quickly backtracked, surprising him by reaching out and smoothing the collar of his shirt. "No, it's a good look for you, really. It's just... different." She smiled. "But I like it."

Realizing what she was doing, she pulled her gloved hands away, her fingers curling into fists as she winced, but ice already lined the collar and sleeves of his shirt anyways, just as it had on his cloak.

Before either of them could say anything, a sudden loud ringing sound resounded throughout the entire castle, shaking the floor beneath them, and Elsa sighed.

"That's the bells," she told him anxiously, "Ten minutes until the ceremony."

She turned away from him and walked over to the table against the far wall, looking up at the painting above it with distress while she chewed distractedly at her lip. He followed her gaze, and his stomach seemed to drop when he saw who the painting represented.

It was her father.

He was a young man, with a look of nervousness embedded into his features as he stood arrow-straight before an unseen crowd, and held an orb and a scepter in either hand.

Taking a deep breath, Elsa slipped her elegant green coronation gloves off of her hands and set them aside, reaching for an ornament and candlestick that sat on the dresser, and mimicked her father's posture.

Ice immediately formed over the two props, and she cringed, slamming them back onto the dresser and reclaiming her gloves once more.

He watched all of this with sympathy and silence, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Can't you just keep the gloves on?" he asked quietly, stepping toward her.

Elsa shook her head. "My skin has to touch what the kings and queens before me have touched," she mumbled, "It makes it more... genuine." She sighed, fumbling to put the first glove on. "I'm terrified."

Jack looked down, rubbing his arm. He was scared too – But he didn't know why.

Not knowing what to say to her to comfort her, he did the first thing he could think of; He held out his hand.

Understanding this, she pulled the second glove over her palm and reached out.

But he shook his head, pulling his hand away.

"Without the glove," he told her, and watched her already-frightened eyes widen in fear. "Elsa, I promise you won't hurt me."

He didn't expect her to agree to this, but she surprised him by sucking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, before tugging the glove off of her hand once more and reaching out again.

This time, he took it.

It was the strangest thing Jack had ever experienced; Stranger than flying on the Wind, stranger than walking through a person, stranger than losing control.

And it was incredible

It was something he had never felt before since he had risen from the ice; Bare skin touching bare skin.

Tendrils of ice wrapped around his fingers from her anxiety, but he paid them no mind as he watched Elsa's hand, smaller and paler and daintier and softer than he could have ever imagined, wrap around his own.

They both gasped at the same time, before looking up at each other, both with highly colored cheeks and bashfully averted eyes.

"Jack, I..." Elsa murmured quietly, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, her grip tightening on his hand, "I can't do this. I can't go out there. All of those people, they-"

"Will _love _you," he told her confidently, the corner of his mouth turning up into a crooked smile as he boldly took her hand in both of his in the effort to reassure her, "They'll love you because you know how to talk to people even though you don't do it that much, and you say funny things even though you try to act all grown up, and you're-" He paused suddenly, his cheeks going dark blue, before he cleared his throat and summoned the nerve to mumble feebly; "Well, uh, you're... pretty."

Elsa's eyes darted up from the floor and she looked up at him, startled. "I- what?"

_Tap tap tap._

"Your highness! It's time to open the gates!"

"Diana," Elsa and Jack whispered at the same time, turning to the door, and Elsa's hand started to tremble in both of his.

"Jack," she said softly, biting her lip, "I'm... scared."

There was the déjà vu again, stronger than before, and he shook his head a little to clear it away. "Elsa..." he began, unsure how to finish.

Then, in yet another crazy act of boldness and nerve, he pulled her towards him.

Because of his height, Elsa's cheek rested against the top of his chest, and her eyes widened in alarm as his arms wrapped around her shoulders and he gave her what neither of them could remember ever properly experiencing before.

A hug.

Jack immediately regret his wild and subconscious action as Elsa's entire body went rigid in shock, and he waited with a motionless heart for the temperamental queen's reaction.

He would surely be frozen by her hostility at any moment.

It struck him breathless, however, when she slowly relaxed, before turning her face forward so that her forehead touched the space beneath the hollow of his throat, and her hands rested on either side of his chest.

No ice appeared where her forehead and bare palms touched him.

Jack realized he hadn't been breathing the entire time, and exhaled in relief, before hugging her tighter and closing his eyes, basking in the contact and realizing that he was glad that out of all the people to be holding like that just then, out of all the families he'd ever envied and the people he'd ever watched...

He was glad it was Elsa.

_Tap tap tap._

"Your highness, the people are waiting!"

They sighed in unison and reluctantly pulled apart, both ducking their heads to hide their colorful cheeks as they stammered out unnecessary sentences.

"Um, well... I-I guess we should...

"Yeah... I guess..."

"Yeah."

A brief moment of awkward silence passed, and then Elsa looked up, her eyes lighter than he had ever seen them before, though still wide in fear.

"You'll be up there with me?"

He nodded. "Of course."

She took a deep breath, and reached for her coronation gloves, slipping them on before turning to the doors and throwing them open, where a line of servants waited in the hall expectantly.

"Tell the guards to open up the gates!" she ordered, marching down the aisle with dignity and poise; Nobody would've guessed that she was on the verge of a panic attack.

She was so strong.

Jack retrieved his staff from against the library wall, his heart still thudding rapidly in his icy chest after the events from mere moments ago, before turning to the painting of Elsa's father; The deceased King of Arendelle.

The husband of the first person who had seen him and the father of the first person who had touched him.

The man he had killed.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, as though the portrait could somehow hear him, before turning away and exiting the room.

* * *

Jack didn't see the dark figure of a man lingering in the far-off corner, watching the oblivious Winter spirit walk down the hall with a pleased and malicious smile gleaming white on his shadowy face.

Had Jack stayed for a moment longer, he would have heard the familiar voice murmur:

_"It's almost time."_

* * *

***Kilig **(Filipino) - n. _The sudden feeling of a fluttery, warm, and/or **inexplicable rush of joy** and zeal one feels when something **romantic or idealistic** is experienced or witnessed, especially when** looked at** or **touched** by somebody in a way that makes one feel **nervous** and **excited** at the same time; "**The Butterflies in Your Tummy**"_


	12. Eccedentesiast

Chapter 12. Eccedentesiast

* * *

**Elsa**

Anna was so great at these things.

Elsa peeked through the ajar double doors in disbelief as her sister pranced about the Great Hall, exchanging words with every guest she passed, all of whom smiled and laughed and beamed at the youngest princess' stumbling grace and awkward charm and delightful loquaciousness.

"Your sister's nailing it, eh?" Diana remarked, coming up behind Elsa and peering through the small sliver of open door, "You should take lessons from her on being social."

Elsa sighed, picking at her gloves nervously and waiting for the bells to ring a third and final time, signaling the beginning of her coronation, where she was to walk down the aisle between the pews and step up onto the platform, where the ceremony would begin.

"She's so... _big_," she murmured after a moment, "Has she always been that tall?"

"No, she hasn't," Diana replied with a sad smile, "You just weren't there to see her grow."

Though the maid's words were true and her tone was harmless, it pierced Elsa's heart like a cold needle, and she turned away from the doors. "Does she... does she hate me?"

This time, Jack, who stood beside Diana, answered. "No way," he told her, certainty evident in his voice as he stepped forward, "The way she talked about you the other day made it pretty obvious that you're, like, her hero."

"Hero?" Elsa repeated, blinking in surprise, "But... but I'm-"

"Strong and regal and elegant and poised," Diana interrupted, smiling a little, "In her eyes, anyway. When she looks at you, she sees everything she wants to be. Independent. Intelligent. Beautiful. Powerful."

"But... But I'm not any of those things," Elsa replied, distressed and distraught as she turned back to the doors, "That's just an act, I don't... I'm an emotional wreck, Diana, you know that. I'm a disaster! I'm weak and weepy, and I'm certain my temper will be the death of me one day. I'm as destructive and dangerous and messy as... as..."

"A blizzard?" Jack offered, and Diana muffled a snort of laughter behind her hand.

Elsa turned on her heel and glared at him, not at all in the mood for his teasing or mischief. "How dare you make fun at a time like this?" she snapped, and he took a step back with his hands raised in surrender, "I am under enough stress as it is!"

She stomped her foot irritably at this last part, and gasped in alarm when a ring of curly vines of ice circled the floor around her like a web, centered where her heel came in contact with the hallway carpet.

Jack winced, guilt written all over his face. "No wait, Elsa, don't-"

He reached out, and she flinched away instinctively, momentarily forgetting that he could touch her.

Diana, unaware that Jack was immune to Elsa's fury, clutched his shoulder and pulled him a step back. "Give her a moment," she whispered wisely, looking at her highness with a flicker of pain in her sympathetic eyes.

Jack rolled his eyes. "She's had enough '_moments_' up in that room," he replied, shrugging out of the startled maid's grip and placing his hands on either of Elsa's forearms as the future-queen held her face in her hands and whispered her signature phrase.

"Conceal-"

"Elsa?"

"-don't feel-"

"Elsa."

"-don't let it show."

"Elsa, look at me."

She went silent as Jack's words, so quiet and gentle for such a fun person, made her heart pause.

Summoning what was left of her nerve, which wasn't enough, she lifted her head just a fraction of a way, enough to see the top button of his shirt but not enough to see his face. She had always been antisocial and reserved, and had reason enough to be, but she had never had a reason to be _shy. _

Not until Jack used that serious voice with her.

A brief moment went by where she kept her head slightly bowed and her eyes carefully averted, before she froze in shock when one of his hands left her arm and found her chin, lifting her head the rest of the way and making it impossible for her not to look at his face.

He gazed at her a moment, looking startled at his own actions, before quickly masking his wide eyes and amazed expression by taking on an obviously forced half-hearted smirk that didn't fool her at all.

"I'm sorry, okay?" he told her, his words hasty and breathless despite the fact that he attempted to appear casually smug, "I promise I won't tease you anymore. Not until the ceremony's over, anyways."

Elsa couldn't focus on a single thing he was saying when he held her chin like that

"Yes, well," she said in a too-quiet mumble, clearing her throat as she took his wrist in her gloved hand and lowered it from her face, which she imagined was flushed darker than cherries, "Implying that I haven't been exiled by the time the ceremony ends..."

Her worry drew thick spirals of frost onto his wrist, and Elsa had forgotten that Diana was standing a little away from her until she heard the maid give a shocked gasp.

"Elsa, his arm!"

The maid stepped forward, hastily pulling Jack away from Elsa before he could protest, and bent to examine his wrist with her eyebrows knit together with worry. She had expected to see something moderate to severe; Shards of ice cutting into his skin, perhaps, or the serious bluish-black flakes of frostbite. She mentally prepared herself for whatever horrific frozen injury was awaiting beneath the fabric on his arm.

So it was a bit of a shock to the elderly woman when she pulled back the sleeve of this seemingly-ordinary teenage boy and found nothing but unblemished pale flesh, completely unaffected by the lethal ice that was glazing over it at a rapid rate.

Elsa watched this speechlessly, exchanging unsure looks with Jack as they both practically heard the click in Diana's head as she looked up at Jack with curious grey eyes.

"But how-?"

The bells rang then, drowning out the rest of the confused woman's words, and Elsa took advantage of this diversion by snatching Jack's hand and turning to the door, throwing Diana one last apologetic look as the words _"Elsa of Arendelle!" _echoed through the Great Hall, and everyone inside stood as the future-queen entered the room.

The guests that stood respectively in front of their pews all saw a young woman with good posture and a polite smile as she walked between them down the aisle, an air of regalty and power radiating off of her like light. She was beautiful, but maturely so, resembling the former queen uncannily with her hair done up and her mother's cape clasped around her throat, which trailed to the carpet behind her like a wedding veil.

They saw a proper young princess ready to be queen.

What they didn't see, behind Elsa's skillfully-created masquerade, was the panic; It flickered and fluttered in the pit of her stomach like a dozen wriggling snakes that had just burst into flames. They didn't see the worry, the anxiety, the fear. They didn't see the shallow breathing or speeding heart. They didn't see the worst-case scenarios or the dark thoughts. They didn't see the sharp bits of ice that lined the inside of her gloves, clinging to the fabric between her fingers like stalagmites and that pierced her skin.

And they definitely didn't see the boy, the white-haired one that yanked at the collar of his shirt impolitely and stumbled occasionally in the shoes her wore, walking loyally behind her.

Nobody could see him, except Elsa, Anna, Diana...

And two others.

* * *

"Your majesty... the gloves."

Her hands paused over the cushion the bishop held out, her brow furrowed slightly as she gave him a weary look. He was a bespectacled man whose crimson robes matched his elegant miter, and he had a much kinder face than that of the bored servant who had so drably played him in rehearsals, looking at her with respect and a bit of sympathy when he noticed her discomfort.

Resisting the urge to sigh or roll her eyes, Elsa looked down at her hands for a brief moment, before glancing sideways.

Her sister stood to her left, giving small little waves to somebody in the audience, looking completely at ease and happy to have the gates open. She was so _big_; She wasn't little Anna anymore. She was a young woman.

Glancing to her right, Elsa saw Jack, standing a bit closer to her than her sister was and watching her with amusement in his eyes, though he seemed to remember his promise from earlier and didn't attempt to frighten the guests by tapping the windows or confuse the bishop by yanking his miter down over his eyes. He behaved himself, holding his staff over his shoulder and nodding encouragingly at the cushion held before her that was topped with the scepter and orb.

Fighting the nervous habit of taking her lip between her teeth, Elsa refocused her gaze on her hands, and reluctantly slipped the gloves off, placing them on the cushion and hesitantly taking the relics in her bare hands.

The bishop smiled as she turned to the audience, and he started to recite the royal vows. Elsa forced herself not to scan the crowd, instead focusing on the back wall, her lips pressed together and her fingers taut around the scepter and orb.

_Conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel._

Though she made sure not to look at them, the audience smiled at her, smiles that she missed because her anxiety pleaded that she avert her eyes from them. Had she been looking, she would have seen that none of these people were judging her.

They were supporting her.

Her panic rose as the seconds rolled on tediously, and her eyes flit down to her hands when she felt the first prickling chill of ice forming over the smooth gold of the objects. Her breath caught, and she inhaled sharply, raising her eyes back to the far wall and willing herself to make it through.

What she saw was a bit of a shock.

A man stood against the wall at the back of the room, his long face and thin body thrown in complete darkness despite the sunlight that streamed through the windows that lined the walls. The only things that stood out on his shadow-blackened face was his smile, a sinister white crescent on its side, and his eyes.

They glinted black against shimmering gold, and stared directly at her.

A new sort of fear bubbled in her chest, causing her breath to stop altogether as she took a stumbling step back.

Realizing how clumsy this must have looked to the oblivious crowd, she quickly turned this into a graceful turnaround, hastily setting the relics back onto the cushion just as the bishop finished the vows, slipping her gloves back on before turning back to find that the mysterious man had vanished.

The audience burst into loud but polite applause, and Elsa looked around in confusion, wondering how a person can just disappear without moving to a pew or exiting out the doors.

Jack had turned to her with a grin as the crowd's claps flooded the room and everybody started to file out the doors to the ballroom, but his face fell when he saw the worry in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

She continued to search the now-empty room distractedly, but eventually turned to face him, her eyes clearing as she opened her mouth and snapped it shut again.

Should she tell him about what she had seen? About the strange cold that had clasped her heart when she had seen it?

No. He had heard voices the other day. Seen things. Collapsed in the snow. She was worried about this, and about him. She didn't want to reverse that situation and have _him_ concerned for _her _sanity.

"Nothing," she replied breathily, exhaling slowly and attempting a small smile, "Just... relieved."

And she was. The ceremony was over, and it felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Now she just had to make it through the celebration, which she was almost confident about.

Almost.

* * *

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle!"

Kai's announcement rang over the springy music that filled the ballroom, and the guests paused in their eating and dancing and turned to the stage, applauding as a fresh-faced and calm queen stepped into the room, turning to the crowd and giving them a small prim smile.

Jack stood offstage, leaning against a pillar among the unaware audience and smirking up at her, gesturing to his mouth and implying that she should smile brighter, as she had promised Diana. But Elsa was feeling self-conscious, and could not summon the nerve to smile wider at this staring audience.

At least the panic had ebbed.

"Princess Anna of Arendelle!"

Elsa turned her head along with everybody else, a flash of nervousness flickering in her heart, as her sister sprinted unceremoniously into the room, standing offstage and giving the crowd an awkward wave and a bubbly smile, before Kai took her shoulders and ushered her onto the platform.

"Oh, here?" Anna asked nervously, as the servant guided her to a spot right beside Elsa, "Are you sure? 'Cause I don't think I'm s'posed to- Oh, okay."

Elsa watched out of the corner of her eye as her little sister brushed her bangs from her face nervously, turning away and biting her lips. Feeling guilty and summoning her courage, Elsa spoke up before her sister could walk away, using the advice Diana had given her nearly a week ago.

"Hey."

Anna started a bit, and turned back to her older sister in disbelief. "Hi... hi me?" she asked with a pleasantly surprised tone, giggling in embarrassment as Elsa nodded, "Oh, um... hi."

Elsa looked down, searching for more words. "You look beautiful."

And she did; She wore a green gown with a black bodice and frilly white bloomers beneath that reached her calves. A necklace, bearing the symbol of Arendelle, was clasped around her throat, and her hair was done up in ribbon and braids.

"Thank you!" Anna smiled radiantly. "You look beautifuller. Oh, no wait, not _fuller_, but-"

As her sister stammered to correct herself, Elsa looked back at Jack, who was now grinning and giving her a thumbs-up, while carefully avoiding anybody that might walk through him.

"Thank you," Elsa replied, turning away from Jack and laughing lightly at her sister's adorable awkwardness. She hadn't changed a bit, and somehow her quirkiness and stumbles and stammers were making Elsa feel quite a bit more comfortable. She gazed out at the crowd, all laughing and enjoying themselves, and, feeling a bit more confident, she added; "So... this is what a party looks like."

"It's warmer than I thought," Anna remarked.

"And what is that amazing smell?"

A warm and attractive aroma flooded the space around them, drifting over from the food table, and the sisters looked almost identical as they inhaled simultaneously, before exclaiming in unison.

"Chocolate!"

Giggles followed this, before there was a brief silence, which Anna broke. "Look at him," she said with a chuckle, nodding to Jack, who was gazing absent-mindedly out a window and irritably tugging at his collar, looking incredibly uncomfortable, "He's like a fish out of water."

Elsa laughed behind her hand. "He is," she said, smiling sympathetically, "He probably wants out of this place. It's too warm in here, and he likes the cold. And the outdoors."

"But he's staying," Anna said thoughtfully, "He could leave, but he isn't. For you."

Elsa turned to her sister, who was smirking a little as she continued to watch Jack. "What?"

"C'mon, don't you see it?" Anna asked, waving a hand at Jack and then waving the other at Elsa, "It's so _obvious_."

Elsa was confused, and she turned to look at Jack as well. "What's so obvious?"

The two girls were interrupted when Kai, one of the butlers, stepped forward and addressed the queen, gesturing to a short balding man beside him.

"Your majesty, the duke of Weaseltown."

"Weselton!" the man exclaimed indignantly, turning to Elsa with a forced chuckle, "Duke of _Weselton_, your majesty." He cleared his throat, and bowed his head respectively. "As your closest partner in trade, it seems only fitting that I offer your first dance as queen."

He then proceeded to do an odd little dance, his feet tapping and bouncing erratically before he bowed forward, and what turned out to be a toupee peeled off of his head, dangling from his scalp by a thread hilariously.

This sight was almost too much, and Elsa pressed her hand against her mouth to hide her snorts of laughter. Anna, however, allowed herself to giggle openly.

"Thank you," Elsa said genuinely, her arms prickling uncomfortably at the thought of having to dance with anyone, "Only I don't dance." When the duke looked offended, she quickly added with the hint of a smirk. "But my sister does."

Anna gaped. "What? Oh, I don't think-"

But the duke was already dragging her away, saying something about how, if she happened to swoon, he promised to catch her.

Elsa gave her sister an apologetic smile, a wave, and a small "Sorry!" as the duke did a strange sort of chicken dance around the confused princess.

Jack walked up just then, stepping onto the stage and standing beside Elsa, wincing sympathetically when he saw the duke do a wild hop and land on either of Anna's shoes, crushing her toes.

"Ouch. How did she end up in that situation?"

Elsa looked to the side with a guilty smile as Anna was dipped, throwing hilarious _help-me_ looks in their directions.

"Well..."

As Jack laughed, Anna came limping back onto the platform, breathing heavily and smoothing her hair.

"Well, he was sprightly," Elsa remarked, a hint of sarcasm lacing her humored tone.

Anna groaned, kicking off one of her black slippers and rubbing her sore foot. "Especially for a man in heels."

Elsa laughed, and Jack smirked. "Heels? Yikes."

Playfully elbowing him in the ribs, Elsa turned back to her sister. "Are you okay?"

Obviously loving the attention, Anna smiled breathlessly. "I've never been better. This is so nice! I wish..." She trailed off dreamily. "I wish it could be like this all the time."

"Me too," Elsa replied without thinking, getting lost in the thought of having forever-open gates and smiling people. She'd have _attention_ and _admiration _and _acceptance_; All those things she'd never admit she craved.

But then reality hit her, hard and cold like a glacier, and she ducked her head. "But it can't."'

Anna was unfazed and cheerful. "Why not? If-"

"It just _can't_."

Elsa's tone was harsher than she meant, and she sighed, turning away from her sister and closing her eyes. The panic was returning; Weak and fluttery, but still there, and she took a deep breath, wringing her gloved hands.

Anna's face fell, and she turned to Jack, her eyes pleading and desperate for some sort of explanation. But he shook his head, averting his eyes and ducking his head in a silent way of telling her that there was nothing he could tell her.

Eyes brimming with hurt and barely contained tears, she turned away as well. "Excuse me for a minute."

As she hurried hastily away, stepping offstage and disappearing into the crowd, Elsa covered her face with her hands, struggling to pull herself together before she could completely fall apart.

Oh, what a fool she was! Leading her sister on like that and giving her a sliver of hope, before snatching it away like everything else.

Because of her, Anna would always be kept in the dark.

And so would she.

She spent a brief moment behind her hands, hiding from the world for as long as she allowed herself to before people could notice, and then reluctantly lowered her hands and opened her eyes to see Jack watching her closely, kneeling a little so that their eyes were level. She quickly averted hers.

"Elsa?"

"I'm fine."

"You're not."

"I am."

"Sometimes it's okay to admit that you're not."

She looked back up at him, feeling half-annoyed and half-amused by the trouble-making Winter spirit's sudden wisdom. What did he know, anyways? He had never had to keep up appearances for anyone. He didn't have a beam of guilt resting on either of his shoulders. He didn't have a sister to save.

He was free.

Hopefully her thoughts didn't show on her face, because she wasn't in the mood for another _Who Has It Worse? _argument. The last one hadn't ended well.

Seemingly oblivious to what she was thinking, he leaned forward and lowered his voice with the shadow of a smirk marking his mouth.

"Wanna ditch this place?"

Elsa stepped back, alarmed at such a sudden and outrageous idea."What?"

She did, actually. She had heard him quite clearly, and she _did _want to "ditch this place", if not just for a moment. She wanted to step out of this uncomfortably warm room into the fresh air, where she could perhaps relax for just a moment before being introduced to a bunch of lords and ladies and dukes and duchesses and princes and princesses, all of whom will ask to dance and be rejected and think it's their fault.

Elsa wanted out.

But she knew it was the wrong thing to do. She knew that leaving this room full of the people of her kingdom was practically forbidden. A part of her, the good girl that followed the rules and wore her hair up and held her pinkie out when she drank, told her to stay, to ignore this trouble-maker and put on her mask of a smile once more.

Another part of her though, a more prominent part, the little girl that rolled her eyes and snorted with laughter and stuffed her face with chocolates, told her that she _could _be convinced. And that her smile didn't _have _to be a mask.

And who better to do the convincing than he whom she now considered her closest friend in the world?

This time it seemed he could read her mind, and he grinned, before gesturing to her with his hand and preparing to persuade her. "For one thing, it looks like you're talking to a wall."

Elsa considered this, and nodded. "True. Go on."

"For another..." He peered around the room with false anxiety as he murmured out of the corner of his mouth in a comically frightened way, his voice sarcastic and exaggerated as he whispered to her; "Diana could be lurking around _any corner_, and we'll have to explain _everything_ to her. Remember what she saw before the ceremony? She'll want answers."

Elsa nearly cringed at the thought of confronting her maid, who was probably furious with her for keeping such a secret, and nodded for him to proceed. "Alright..."

"Nobody would notice that you're gone," he continued, nodding his head to the audience, who had formed a large circle around something she couldn't see, "Everyone's distracted by your sister. She sorta stole the show."

Elsa followed his gaze, and through a gap in the crowd she saw her sister dancing gracefully with a handsome young prince, taking the attention of the entire room as everybody smiled and clapped.

"She did," Elsa replied fondly, smiling at her sister's happiness, but she wasn't persuaded just yet.

Jack examined his fingernails with a smirk, ready to throw his last resort at her. "It's not proper for a queen to mindlessly stuff her face with chocolates in public, right?" he asked smugly, throwing her a knowing glance, "Well, there's a tray of truffles on the table over there, and, as you know, I'm invisible, and can easily sneak that out in a heartbeat."

Elsa was mildly offended; Did he really think she was such a glutton that she'd sneak away from her royal duties just for a plate of chocolate?

Yes. Yes she was.

"Done!" she laughed, and, looking satisfied with himself, Jack offered her his arm in an exaggeratedly regal way, which she took, muffling her mirth with her hand and throwing another look at the crowd, none of whom were looking at her as Jack guided her to a pair of double doors that lead to a grand balcony. Everyone was too distracted by Anna.

Well, _almost _everybody was distracted.

The prince who danced with Anna saw the queen slip out the doors, lead by a white-haired boy clutching a staff.

Yes, this prince could see the boy, and he dipped the princess so that she couldn't see the sneer that distorted his otherwise pleasant and charming features.

Everything was falling into place, and now all he had to do was wait for the signal.

* * *

***Eccedentesiast** (English) - n. _A person who **fakes** a **smile**_


	13. Serendipity

Chapter 13. Serendipity

* * *

**Jack**

The sky was awake.

The balcony beneath it was rectangular and a little smaller than the others of the castle, and was bordered by bushels of violet revebjelles that dangled above the lanterns, which flickered dimly in the darkening twilight. It was quiet besides the occasional blare of the band or outburst of laughter that drifted out onto the balcony, muffled by the double doors and tuned out by the queen and the spirit that leaned against the railing and gazed thoughtfully at the sky.

The guests that chatted and gorged and twirled around the ballroom either didn't notice or didn't mind that their new queen had been missing for almost ten minutes, but that didn't stop Elsa from occasionally peering anxiously over her shoulder through the windows, as though expecting a panic to ensue inside just because of her absence.

Jack chuckled when she did this for the twenty-somethingth time, nudging her shoulder lightly with his own and causing her to start.

"They can go one hour without you, you know," he told her earnestly, "A little hooky is good for you."

"Yes, a _little _is," she sighed, turning away from the windows behind them and facing forward once more, wringing her hands and watching the last sliver of sun disappear behind the mountains, "But I've already neglected them enough. Meetings, balls, festivals, dinners... I was supposed to just _attend _these things when I was a princess. Now as queen, I'm expected to actually _plan out _and _be in charge _of these events." She shook her head and leaned her elbows against the railing, resting her cheek in her hand glumly. "Unfortunately, the only way I can ever do that is to have..."

"Control," Jack finished for her when she trailed off, crossing his arms and leaning against the banister beside her.

"And open gates."

"And, you know, social skills."

Elsa glared at his grin, but he swore he saw the corner of her mouth twitch as though she were trying not to smile herself, before she turned back to the view before them.

The sun had set completely, and now the sky was not only awake... It was _alive_.

Fireflies awoke and glowed gold to match the small lanterns that were strung about the castle on thin wire garlands, while the stars twinkled through the thin glimmering auroras that lit up the black sky with its shimmering waves.

And then there was the Moon, right in the center of it all, nearly full and lighting the fjords with a silver haze.

"Wow," Elsa breathed, blue eyes reflecting the blue and green hues of the Northern Lights, "They look close enough to just... reach out and touch."

Jack looked down at her, the corner of his mouth turning up at the look on her face, which was lit up in the milky beam of the Moon; She could have been a child just then, so full of wonder and hope.

But that image shattered like glass when she turned to look at the windows again, giving in to her paranoia that something was going to wrong. Seeing her do this, Jack knew he had to find a way to get her mind off of her queenly duties for at least a few minutes, before her bottled-up stress could eat her from the inside.

And he knew just how to.

"You could," he told her after a moment, referring to the last thing she had said as he nodded to the auroras, "you know, actually get close enough to reach out and touch them."

Elsa looked up at him, startled. "What? No, no, there's no way-"

"Excuse me?" he scoffed, holding up his staff. "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

She cocked an eyebrow at his sass, but bit her lip to hold back her grin. "I..." She ducked her head, smiling a little as her cheeks tinged with pink. "I couldn't..."

"THERE YOU ARE!"

They both gasped in shock, and whirled around to see Diana in the open doorway with her hands on her hips and her grey eyes sharp as she stared sternly at the guilty queen.

Elsa stepped back, only to have the small of her back hit the railing, and she looked over her shoulder at the ground below helplessly. "Um... Diana, I can explain..."

"Oh, you'd _better _explain!" the furious maid snapped, "You bring this _boy_ here and don't even _think_ to tell me that he may have some kind of _immunity_ to your powers-"

She started marching forward, and Elsa shrank back against the banister.

Jack, however, was unfazed by the elderly maid's anger, and he smirked and rolled his eyes before hopping gracefully onto the railing and reaching out to the frightened queen. "C'mon, Elsa," he whispered, nodding to the auroras with a grin, "It's now or never."

"-and then you just _disappear_ on me and leave me hanging," Diana was saying, stomping slowly but steadily, "not to mention your _people. _I've been trying to get you to break the rules for _years_ and you choose _now _of _all times-_

Elsa looked up at Jack, who still balanced effortlessly on the railing with an expectant smile on his face that made her heart stop, and he said; "Going once."

"-who _is _this boy exactly? I mean he's obviously not _normal-_"

"Going twice."

"you are in _so much trouble, young lady_!"

"Last chanc-"

He had to admit, he didn't expect Elsa to actually go through with it; So when the queen reached out, taking his hand with one of hers and reaching up to grab his shoulder with the other to secure her balance, his cheeks went involuntarily hot as he held her waist to steady her while she stepped up onto the banister bar and struggled to keep from falling.

Diana froze halfway across the balcony, gasping in alarm. "How-?"

The rest of her sentence was drowned out by the Wind, which had picked up with an unexpected strength that caused Elsa's cape to flap wildly around her and frame her face, which was silhouetted against the Moon and lit up with a radiant smile.

Jack laughed at the look on the maid's face, but his grin fell away when he wobbled slightly on the thin bar railing, and he let out an exasperated groan. "Ugh, these _shoes_!" He turned away from Diana and, while still supporting Elsa, brought his foot back and kicked, hard.

The first shoe sailed over the castle gardens and landed with a miniscule splash in the distant fjords. The second soon followed, and Jack laughed a second time as tendrils of frost emitted from his bare feet and curled around the ivy that was wrapped around the banister bars.

Diana gaped. "What? You have-?"

Jack glanced down at Elsa, who still clung tightly to his forearm and was muffling a laugh against his shoulder.

"You ready?"

She gazed up at him, her smile fading and her eyes widening as her breath caught in her throat.

"Yes."

And just as Diana's strong wrinkled hand reached out in a claw-like motion to snatch the hem of Elsa's dress, the queen's feet had already left the railing, and the spirit held her to him as they shot into the sky like a bullet.

"I've never been this high up before," Elsa gasped as Diana shrank to the size of an ant below them.

Jack looked at her when she said this, and smiled sympathetically when he saw how pale she looked. Boldly, he tightened his grip around her waist as the Wind surged them forward, and though her eyes squeezed shut in shock at their speed, she couldn't help but laugh at the deliciously frightening sensation of flying.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a moment, when the Wind had calmed and caused them to hover in midair.

Elsa nodded, her face hidden in his shoulder. "I'm wonderful, actually."

"Open your eyes then."

He watched her eagerly as she took a deep breath and raised her head, opening her eyes. Her reaction was satisfying; The sight before her caused an amazed gasp to tear from her throat.

Jack had taken her to a spot in the sky that was smack-dab in the center of the Northern Lights.

It was nothing new to him; In his free time, he had flown about the shimmering auroras and watched his skin reflect their colors multiple times back in Antarctica. But for Queen_ Always-Has-Her-Feet-On-The-Ground_ Elsa, this was completely brand new, and she reached out and sighed her astonishment at the sight of her gloved hand joining the drifting waves.

She was surrounded by color.

The mountain peaks were below them and the Moon was enormous. The air was incredibly thin, but Elsa didn't seem to care as she reached out a second time, waving her hand a little and giggling at the light that danced across her skin.

"It's extraordinary," she breathed, turning to beam at him and blushing when she found him already looking down at her.

Jack hastily averted his eyes, clearing his throat. "Er, yeah. It is."

She smiled, attempting to read his face. "You're thinking about something. What is it?"

"I'm not thinking about anything."

"Yes you are. I can tell."

Okay, so maybe she looked kinda sorta really beautiful when she smiled like that. Maybe.

Not that he would ever admit that.

"I was thinking," he said, keeping his voice nonchalant and his smile casual, "about how your cheeks turn red when you blush. Did you know that?"

* * *

Elsa was incredibly quiet on the way back to the castle.

"What are _you _thinking about?" Jack asked as they neared the balcony, watching her thoughtful eyes curiously.

She shrugged, ducking her head a little as her feet made contact with the balcony floor. "Well, it's just... I would never have made it through the day without you being here, Jack." She released his hand and looked up at him, managing a small smile. "So thank you. And thank you for giving me a little taste of freedom tonight. I'll never look at the auroras the same way again now."

Jack blinked in surprise, before running his fingers through his hair as an excuse to duck his head and hide his darkening cheeks, and he cleared his throat. "I-it was nothing."

"It was really so much more than that."

His head raised and his eyes widened in shock when she stood up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder and pulling him down slightly in a hug that was far less awkward than the first one that had taken place that morning.

This time there was no rigidness or fear.

When she pulled back to look at him, she found that he was so stunned that he stood completely still, and her cheeks darkened and she cleared her throat sheepishly. "I, um..."

He let out a breathless chuckle at her embarrassed expression, and pulled her up into his own embrace, nearly lifting her off her feet and coaxing a laugh out of her.

"YOU DIDN'T THINK YOU'D GET AWAY FROM ME THAT EASILY."

"Oh, great..." Jack sighed, releasing Elsa and wincing as a thumb and forefinger reached up and pinched his earlobe painfully.

"Diana!" Elsa exclaimed indignantly, as Jack was forced to hunch over and mumble _ow ow ow _as he was yanked by his ear away from the queen because of the four-foot-tall elderly maid that possessed the strength of a bull.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST FLY OFF AND EVADE MY CLUTCHES-"

"Your clutches? I didn't _evade_ anything!"

"-YOU PRACTICALLY KIDNAPPED THE QUEEN, HOW DARE YOU-"

"I didn't _kidnap _anyone!"

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE, YOU WEIRD HORMONAL FLYING THING."

"I'm _not _ a weird- Wait, what?!"

"IF YOU LAY ANOTHER HAND ON HER HIGHNESS, I WILL PERSONALLY-"

"Diana!" Elsa repeated, crossing her arms and looking at her maid sternly, though her cheeks were slightly flushed. "Release his ear."

The elderly woman turned to look at her. "Excuse me?"

With the faintest shadow of a smirk, Elsa gestured to her head, where her crown adorned her hair regally. "His ear," she repeated firmly, "Release it."

Diana stared at her for a moment, before sighing as a scolded child would and turning to scowl at Jack. "I'm not through with you yet, boy," she snarled, and crossed her arms with a huff, before turning back to Elsa, who was muffling laughter behind her hand but quickly composed herself when she saw the glare her maid gave her.

Jack rubbed his ear irritably and moved to stand beside Elsa, who took his arm defensively.

"Now then," she said, facing Diana and making herself as tall as she possibly could, "Was that really necessary? I merely stepped out for a bit of air-"

"Stepped out for a bit of air?" Diana repeated, "You took off _into _the air! _How _did you do that? _What _is going on here? And _who_..." She turned to Jack, reached up, and placed each hand on either of his shoulders, looking at him in irritation and wonder. "Who _are _you?"

Jack exchanged a look with Elsa, who released his arm and reached down to squeeze his hand.

"I..." he began, looking down and shaking his head, "I don't know, I... I'm just Jack Frost."

"You can't be _just _Jack Frost," Diana retorted, stepping back and scrutinizing him with narrowed eyes, "Surely you've got a mother, or a father, or _somebody,_ somewhere, anywhere, alive or dead. You can't just be-"

"But," Jack interrupted, confused, "I am."

She gave an exasperated sigh. "And who told you that?"

"The Moon."

"Oh, of course," Diana responded with a crazed sort of breathless laugh, "Ah yes, of _course_ the moon said... You're not serious right now?" She buried her face in her hands, shaking her head. "First you stand ice, then you _make _ice, then you _fly..._" She wobbled slightly where she stood. "And _now_... Now you say that the _moon_..."

"Because It did!" Elsa replied, stepping forward, "It's true, the Moon told him who he is."

"Impossible!" Diana exclaimed, "It's a bloody rock in the sky! How can you possibly expect me to believe that?"

"Because _I_ do."

The queen's response was quiet but fierce, and Jack looked down at her in mild shock.

Elsa met his gaze and shrugged. "I believe in him," she said quietly, before turning back to Diana. "And I believe that what he says is true."

Diana looked between them in astonishment, and clutched her heart as though she might faint. "A flying... talks to the bloody moon... outrageous..." She took a deep breath, and composed herself. "Alright then, I'm on board. Let's say the moon _did _tell you such a thing; Did it tell you anything else?"

Jack shook his head, the hand that wasn't holding Elsa's subconsciously curling into a fist around his staff. "No."

The maid scanned his face with her eyes, which softened at the shadow she saw. "I see you're bitter about this."

He didn't answer, and Elsa squeezed his hand reassuringly.

Diana pinched the bridge of her nose exasperatedly. "Alright, I'm not saying I believe you. I'm just saying..." She shook her head, and turned back to Elsa sternly. "I'm just saying that the queen is needed by at least twenty different people that wish to make her acquaintance, _including _a very talkative princess of Corona that keeps telling me some wild tale about towers and hair." She gestured to the doorway. "Your people are expecting you, My Lady."

Elsa looked up at Jack with a sigh. "Well..." she mumbled, "I suppose I have to..."

"Go," he told her with a nod, "You're queen now, you can't leave them waiting."

"Says the one who brought me out here in the first place," she laughed.

"Don't even try to say you're not thankful I did," he replied smugly.

"A_hem_," Diana snapped impatiently, gesturing to the doorway a second time.

Elsa allowed herself to roll her eyes, before hesitating, looking up at Jack for a moment and biting her lip.

Then, with little reason or warning, she stood up on her tiptoes once more, and she gave him something quite difference than a hug; Her lips met his cheek and paused there briefly, and then she pulled away and released his hand and reluctantly followed Diana into the ballroom.

"I'll be right back," she promised him, just as the doors closed with a dull thud behind her by an agitated and confused maid.

Jack was left out on the balcony.

If anybody had been watching him just then, they would say that his entire being glowed brighter than the Moon itself when he reached up and brushed the spot above his jaw where Elsa's lips had brushed lightly against the skin there, the skin that had never been touched in such a way. His face broke into a smile (not a smirk or a sneer or even a grin, mind you) but a _smile_, so _full _and _clear _and _different _from who he was.

He was Jack Frost, and he had just been kissed by a girl.

He laughed then, not a laugh of mischief or excitement, but a laugh of a giddy sort of glee that bubbled in his chest, and if he were told to describe that feeling just then he probably would have turned up his nose and scoffed at the thought of discussing something as distasteful as _feelings._

But he would still feel them, and they made him laugh.

After a moment, when his breathing was back in order and the thudding of his heart was back to a healthy rate, he sat on the railing of the balcony with his legs dangling over the edge, and he looked up at the Moon thoughtfully.

"Four people have seen me now," he told It casually as he ran his staff over the awning above him and watched the frost swirl across the flowers that hung there, "And three of them are still there. One of them thinks I'm crazy, and one of them wants me to be her brother, and one of them..." He shook his head, unsure where to go from there. "The point is... Before, I wanted to ask You why they can see me and why others can't and why I'm like this." He shrugged, and bowed his head. "But now, I guess I really just want to say thank you."

A moment of silence passed.

_"You still wish you could talk to Him_," the Wind murmured, _"Don't you?"_

"I wish _He _would talk to _me," _Jack sighed in response, before starting slightly and raising his head. "Wait, the Moon is a _He?_"

_"Look to your left," _ the Wind told him, obviously changing the subject.

"But-"

_"Look to your left."_

Jack scowled when the Wind ignored his curiosity, but did as he was told.

He jumped in shock at what he saw.

Perched on the railing beside him was a little bird-like creature, small in size and rather plump, which squeaked in alarm when it saw him looking at it and darted away quickly before he could get a good look at it or properly process what he had seen.

Do birds _squeak?_

It obviously meant something important if the Wind had told him to look at it, so that probably meant he was supposed to follow it.

Confused but determined, he summoned the Wind and took off after it.

* * *

***Serendipity** (English) – n. _**Finding**, **seeing**, or **discovering** something **good** without **seeking** it out or **expecting** it_


End file.
